Workers go to court for the right to disconnect – 02/18/2023 – Market

Brazilians have gone to court more often to ask for the right to ‘disconnect’ from work after the end of the day: there were 2,666 new actions on the subject in 2022 in the Brazilian Judiciary, almost double the number registered in 2018, 1,329.

The survey carried out by the jurimetry company DataLawyer points to an increase, in recent years, in the volume of labor lawsuits that cite terms such as “right to disconnect”, “disconnect from work” or “disconnect from work”.

The expression refers to the employee’s right not to respond to corporate emails, messages and phone calls after finishing their workday.

The issue has already taken at least 23,750 lawsuits to the Labor Court since 2014, including cases already closed and in progress, which are not confidential. In all, the total value of the claims reaches R$ 5.65 billion.

The debate on the right to disconnect emerged at the turn of the 2000s, when cell phones and instant communication media became popular. As technological advances make it possible for companies to maintain control of employees outside the workplace, a concern has been created with the guarantee of the right to rest.

The most recent turning point was the pandemic, a period in which there was a generalization of remote work and the intensive use of communication software.

Brazil does not have a specific law for the subject, but the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws) cites “telematic and computerized means” when dealing with remote work.

For Jorge Luiz Souto Maior, professor of labor law at the Faculty of Law of USP and judge at the TRT-15 (Regional Labor Court of the 15th Region), it is not necessary to create specific legislation for the subject in Brazil, it would be enough to recover what is said in the Constitution.

Souto Maior claims that the 2017 labor reform established that telecommuting would not have a workday limitation, so the employer saw itself in the right to demand an amount of work that could only be fulfilled if the employee extrapolates his working hours.

“Labor law limits the working day so that there are free hours, because the worker is not just a workforce. With telework, it became a fog. Employers took advantage of this to apply an excessive burden, much under the argument that they don’t need to commute to work,” he said.

In recent years, some European countries have adopted legislation to address the issue. France was a pioneer. In 2017, it approved a law that obliges companies with more than 50 employees to specify times when employees do not need to read emails or messages or respond to them.

In Belgium, since February 2022 civil servants cannot be contacted outside office hours. There are some exceptions —by agreement or if it is an urgent demand.

Portugal also approved a similar measure in 2021. By law, the employer must refrain from contacting the worker during the rest period, except in situations of force majeure.

In Brazil, when there is frequent disrespect for the working day, which prevents the right to rest, the professional can sue the Labor Court asking for the recognition of overtime worked and even compensation —which applies to the entire hierarchy of positions, including leadership and trust.

“The right to disconnect is to ensure that people who sell their workforce are not overloaded, so that they have the right to perform tasks outside office hours without being interrupted”, says Alessandra Benedito, a professor at FGV Direito SP.

Wagner Gattaz, director of the company Gattaz Health & Results and president of the Institute of Psychiatry at Hospital das Clínicas, says that the dissolution of working time limits during the pandemic may have contributed to the increase in cases of burnout in professionals working at home. office.

Burnout is a type of work-related disorder in which the professional feels physically and emotionally drained, often after being subjected to stressful conditions, overwork or unattainable goals.

However, the expert says that the most important factor was social isolation, and not just the increased demand for work.

“It is unlikely that just limiting communications related to work is a decisive factor in preventing burnout. Burnout is triggered by an interaction between individual risk behaviors and factors linked to work”, he says.

“To reduce burnout, companies can offer individual training in stress management techniques and changes in employee work management, giving them more autonomy and creating, even at a distance, a network of psychological support and social support for their teams. “.

According to the DataLawyer survey, São Paulo is the state with the highest number of active cases for the right to disconnect. There are 4,091 lawsuits in progress in the courts that serve employees in the region.

Minas Gerais ranks second, with 1,442 shares. Rio de Janeiro, in third, has 1,399 active processes.

Data from the jurimetry company show how the inclusion of terms related to disconnecting from work has increased each year, with a sharp increase in 2020 and 2021.

In 2019, 1,576 cases dealt with the subject in labor claims. In 2020, it jumped to 2,396, a growth of 20%. In 2021, there were 2,396, an increase of 25%.

Milena Bizzarri, director of Human Resources at Mazars Brasil, in the HR area, is to prioritize asynchronous communication, such as emails and online document sharing, and reserve synchronous moments, such as meetings, for creative debate and the exchange of ideas. ideas.

“The manager needs to be a project manager. Be responsible for the clarity of tasks, ideas, deadlines and deliveries. From that moment on, he has to work efficiently in asynchronous communication”, he said.

In addition, she recommends the separation of digital channels. For example, avoid using WhatsApp for both work and personal communications.