A plant of pest control and hygiene company British-owned Rentokil Initial has been ordered to pay a former employee €60,000 after it breached his ‘right to disconnect’ from work outside of office hours. The Supreme Court found it unfair for the worker, to have to ‘permanently leave his telephone on…to respond to requests from his subordinates or customers’ in case of any problems while not at work. The worker was fired in 2011 and took the employer to the worker’s tribunal, asking for compensation for the extra hours ‘on call’. The ruling is the first of its kind since the 2016 law on the right to switch off such electronic devices outside office hours became effective on 1 January 2017.
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