DISCONNECTION FROM WORK: REFLECTIONS ON THE DUTY OF ABSENCE OF CONTACT

Abstract

New information and communication technologies are part of the workers’ daily lives, bringing with them many benefits, but also being responsible for some damages. Through them, the promiscuity between rest time and work time is enhanced, to such an extent that the legislator felt the need to introduce, in the labour legal system, the duty of absence of contact, thus trying to guarantee workers the effectiveness of the rest periods to which they are entitled. In this text, we intend to analyze the content, the delimitation and the scope of article 199-A of the Portuguese Labour Code, which we propose to do by answering the following questions, all focused on the duty of absence of contact enshrined therein: what?; who?; when?; exceptions?; consequences of its violation? Finally, we will leave a brief note on the role of collective bargaining in the development of this matter, seeking to ascertain what has been agreed upon by the social partners in this regard.