On 28th of July, the European Commission has launched its second-phase consultation on the right to disconnect and telework. EPSU warns this step is long overdue, with around 9 million civil servants still lacking proper safeguards, including limits on artificial intelligence at work. A second-phase consultation is part of the EU’s process under Article 154 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. It asks unions and employers for their views on the content of possible EU legislation. The negotiations aim to set EU-wide minimum rules for telework and the right to disconnect. This includes defining when workers can switch off outside normal hours, ensuring telework is voluntary and reversible, regulating workload and working time, addressing health and safety in home offices, covering costs for remote work equipment, and safeguarding privacy and trade union rights, especially regarding algorithmic management and digital monitoring.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.