What is the story about?
Right To Disconnect Bill: On Friday, Supriya Sule, Lok Sabha MP from the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), introduced The Right to Disconnect Bill 2025,
a private member’s bill, in the lower house. The bill seeks legal right for employees to refuse work-related calls, messages and emails beyond official working hours and on holidays. The Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025, was tabled in the Parliament during a packed winter session that began on December 1. The bill seeks the establishment of an Employees' Welfare Authority to enforce the 'Right to Disconnect.' This authority would safeguard the right of employees to not be legally obligated to respond to work-related electronic communication outside of designated office hours or on holidays.
What is The Right To Disconnect Bill, 2025?
The bill was introduced on the fifth day of Parliament's winter session which started on December 1. The proposed 'Right to Disconnect Bill' aims to establish a clear boundary between professional demands and personal time. Its core principle is that employees should not be legally obligated or forced to respond to work-related electronic communication after office hours or on holidays. The Bill seeks to protect this right by establishing a dedicated Employees' Welfare Authority for enforcement.
NCP MP Supriya Sule, who introduced the bill and shared a video on X, said it aims to promote “a better quality of life and a healthier work-life balance by reducing burnout caused by today’s digital culture.”
The Right to Disconnect Bill: When will it become a law?
The Right to Disconnect Bill is classified as a Private Member's Bill, meaning it was introduced by a Member of Parliament who is not part of the Council of Ministers.
In India, such bills face extremely long odds, as they are rarely passed into law. The private member's bills are typically either debated or withdrawn or do not move forward after the government provides its response. In most cases, private member bills are withdrawn after the government responds to the proposed law.
What does The Right To Disconnect Bill propose?
Under the proposed Right to Disconnect Bill, employees would be free from the obligation to respond to any electronic communication (calls, emails, or messages) outside of official working hours and on holidays. Non-compliant employers would face stiff penalties, including a fine calculated as 1 per cent of the total remuneration paid to the organization's employees. NCP MP Supriya Sule introduced the “Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025”, which seeks to establish an Employees’ Welfare Authority.
The Bill contends that constant availability has become a structural feature of the modern workplace. Sule in of the view that digital tools allow flexibility but have also produced a culture where workers feel pressure to check emails or respond to messages late into the evening.
Sule said, “the Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025, provides every employee the right to disconnect from work-related electronic communications. It fosters a better quality of life and a healthier work-life balance by reducing the burnout caused by today's digital culture.”
What are the rules for overtime
The proposed Right to Disconnect Bill aims to curb the rise of unpaid extra work driven by constant digital communication by ensuring that any work performed beyond official hours is compensated.
Under the proposed bill, employees who work beyond official hours must be compensated with overtime pay at the standard wage rate. The draft also calls for the creation of an employees’ welfare authority to uphold and promote the right to disconnect.
Other proposed provisions of the bill include counselling services to raise awareness about healthy technology use and the establishment of digital detox centres to help workers minimise distractions and strengthen personal relationships.
Right to Disconnect rules in Australia
The focus on the right to disconnect in India has been amplified, particularly following tragic incidents linked to overwork and contrasting views from business leaders.
The debate is informed by global examples, such as Australia, which passed its own Right to Disconnect rules last year. The Australian law grants employees the key safeguard of being able to decline calls or messages after hours, reinforcing work-life balance in an always-connected digital environment.
