The Right to Disconnect Bill: How Supriya Sule's Bill aims to protect workers from after-hours calls

Sule’s proposal centres on creating clearer boundaries between professional and personal time. (Representative image)

NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule, on Friday, reintroduced her Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025, in the Lok Sabha, renewing her push to protect employees from being compelled to respond to work-related calls and emails beyond office hours.

The draft legislation proposes giving workers the legal right to ignore official communication outside designated working hours without facing disciplinary action, a safeguard the Baramati MP argues is essential in an “always-on” digital workplace.

Sule’s proposal centres on creating clearer boundaries between professional and personal time. It mandates:

>> Right to refuse after-hours calls, messages and emails without repercussions.

>> Setting up an Employees’ Welfare Authority to implement and monitor the right to disconnect.

>> A national baseline study to assess digital communication burdens on employees outside work hours.

>> Mandatory negotiations between companies with more than 10 workers and employees/unions to frame work rules performed beyond office hours, which would qualify for overtime at normal wages.

>> Counselling services and digital detox centres to be established in coordination with the government.

>> Penalties for companies that violate the provisions, up to 1% of their total employee remuneration.

The “Objects and Reasons” section cites findings from global studies, including a World Economic Forum report, warning that round-the-clock availability leads to chronic stress, sleep deprivation and emotional exhaustion.

Furthermore, the Bill highlights the rise of “telepressure”, the compulsion to immediately respond to digital communication, and “info-obesity,” caused by continuous monitoring of work messages even during weekends and holidays.

Notably, this is not the first time the NCP (SP) leader has introduced the Bill. Sule had previously introduced a version of the Bill in 2019, arguing that India’s 48-hour work week and rapid digitalisation have blurred work-life boundaries for millions of employees.

However, chances are lower that the Bill could become a law.

The Bill is a Private Member’s Bill -- proposals introduced by MPs who are not ministers.

Parliament debates these only on Fridays, and they are rarely enacted. Since Independence, just 14 Private Members’ Bills have become law, with the most recent passed in 1970.