The 9-To-5 Illusion: Right to Disconnect

 When first-world practices are considered lock, stock and barrel for India, chances are its shape or form won’t be anything like the original. The Right to Disconnect Bill, introduced by Member of Parlia­ment Supriya Sule, has almost no chance of becoming a law. It is a Private Members’ Bill, which means it is largely tokenism. And even if, by some miracle, India ever got such a law, it would still not be the slice of workers’ heaven it promises.

Right to Disconnect is the state telling companies that they cannot ask employees not just to work after regular hours, but even to contact them. It has been implemented mainly in a handful of European countries like France. Aus­tralia has some version of it with numerous exclusions.

It sounds like a good idea on the face of it. Who doesn’t want uninterrupted time with family after a long day at work? But a law means nothing if it is inexecutable. India has many labour regu­lations, but they have workarounds for them. If employees have protections, companies just keep people on contract and so forth. Disconnecting after office hours will be just one more in the file.

Also, many employees themselves, especially those who are ambitious, won’t want it because promotions and incre­ments are based on how much extra work you put in. And how will small businesses, which rely on a few employees, operate if they are straitjacketed?

If Sule believes in it, then the place to first implement it is in her own organisation, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), by asking its political workers to only work from 9 to 5. Such a political party will not win one election. All manner of companies with different working conditions exist in the world. Tesla, under Elon Musk, has a reputation for driving employees hard, but many still go to great lengths to join there because of how it shapes their future. For a better work-life balance, there will be some French multinational around. Choos­ing an option from the market is still the best place for an employee who wants to disconnect.