Right To Disconnect: Sanctions Approaching

Each company shall:

• provide practical arrangements and technical measures for disconnecting from digital devices
• organise awareness-raising campaigns and train their staff
• define compensation measures in the event of exceptional derogations

The right to disconnect applies to companies whose “employees use digital tools for professional purposes”. Senior executives are not excluded from the scheme, meaning that they should also be able to effectively disconnect.

Failure to implement the scheme referred to in Article L. 312-9 exposes the employer to an administrative fine of between EUR 251 and EUR 25,000. The applicability of the sanction mechanism was deferred until 30 June 2026 to allow companies to prepare. As this deadline is approaching fast, it is imperative to ensure that a scheme has been implemented.

Practical arrangements

The employer shall set clear limits on availability, as the right to disconnect is specifically intended to prevent constant digital availability from becoming the norm within the workplace. The company shall make disconnection effectively possible through concrete measures tailored to the situation of the company or sector, which will result in adoption of different arrangements not only across different sectors, but even across different teams within a company.

The employer shall be able to demonstrate that the measures chosen are appropriate and proportionate.

The employer shall also put in place a system of periodic evaluation of the implemented measures to assess connection practices outside working hours. Such an evaluation system shall, however, be implemented in compliance with employee data protection rules and should not result in employee surveillance.

Awareness raising measures

The employer shall raise awareness and provide training for the staff on the right to disconnect and its benefits to employees’ mental health.

This aspect is essential. The company should focus particularly on training line managers, to avoid that, in practice, the right to disconnect is not undermined by their demands on their teams.

Exceptional derogations

The employer must strictly regulate exceptional derogations to the right to disconnect and define the terms of compensation in the event of such derogations.

This implies the need to define what constitutes an ‘exceptional derogation’ within each company. This is not always an easy task for companies in the financial sector operating in an international environment.