In the increasingly online world of teletrabajo and remote working in 2024, technology means that we can work with colleagues on the other side of the world and hold online meetings across the continents.

However, there are also some downsides. Things like burnout, screen fatigue and generally just being constantly contactable are new workplace issues that many countries are trying to come to terms with.

In Spain el derecho a la desconexión digital (the right to digital disconnection) is an idea that’s been gaining ground among trade unions and the more left-wing members of Spain’s coalition government.

This comes amid wider efforts to improve workplace rights such as reducing the working week to 37.5 hours. 

READ ALSO: Spain set to slash work week to 37.5 hours

At a recent press conference, the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, stressed the importance of digital disconnection. “There’s no point in reducing the working day if your boss can call you at midnight or send you an email at 5 a.m,’ he said. 

For the reduction of the working week to be effective, he added, it must respect set working hours and ensure that employees are not bothered outside their working hours.

Is it illegal for Spanish bosses to contact workers out-of-hours?

Generally speaking, yes. Or it is in theory, at least. Though there’s not a specific digital disconnection law yet, the right to digital disconnection is already regulated in Spain via various pieces of pre-existing law on workplace rights and data protection.

Article 20 of the Workers’ Statute and Article 88 of Organic Law 3/2018 on Data Protection and Guarantees of Digital Rights both establish legal guarantees that workers can disconnect outside the legally or habitually established working time, protecting their rest time, leave, holidays and personal privacy.

In theory, companies are obliged to create an internal policy defining how this right will be exercised and to train staff on the reasonable use of technology (more on that below).

This is key: companies should come up with a policy or set of rules regarding digital disconnection and out of hours contact. They may also be defined in your sectoral collective bargaining agreement, depending on your type of work.

If there aren’t defined standards, bosses may be able to skirt around the rules.

Whether or not the pushier bosses and high-stress industries respect these rules anyway, however, even if they did exist, is another matter altogether. That’s why, despite the existing regulation, trade unions have reported numerous breaches of labour regulations based on digital issues and called for the legislation to go further. 

READ ALSO: What are my rights if I work extra hours in Spain?

The UGT, one of Spain’s major unions, wants stricter fines and punishments for companies that don’t respect their employees’ right to digital disconnection, as well as it to be included in the Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks, something that would bring the online workplace into line with pre-existing legislation.

Spain’s Ministry of Labour has proposed increasing penalties, with fines ranging from €1,000 to €10,000 depending on the seriousness of the offence. 

It’s also proposed modifying pre-existing rules to create offences related to disrupting the enjoyment of minimum daily and weekly rest periods, annual leave, maximum working hours, breaks during the working day, as well as the regulation of night work and shift work.

The law

So, what does the law actually say? This new right is most specifically outlined Article 88 of the Organic Law on Personal Data Protection and Guarantee of Digital Rights:

Article 88.1: Public workers and employees shall have the right to digital disconnection in order to guarantee, outside the legally or conventionally established working time, respect for their rest time, leave and holidays, as well as their personal and family privacy.

This includes the broad right to digital disconnection, but also the right to privacy and use of digital devices in the workplace; the right to privacy from the use of video surveillance and sound recording devices in the workplace; the right to privacy from the use of geolocation systems; and, finally, employees have the right not to answer calls or emails about work-related issues outside working hours.

Article 88.3 states that employers should create internal policies to ensure this happens: 

“The employer, after hearing the workers’ representatives, shall draw up an internal policy for workers, including those in managerial positions, defining the procedures for exercising the right to disconnection and training and awareness-raising measures for staff on the reasonable use of technological tools in order to avoid the risk of computer fatigue.”

So, legally speaking, it is illegal for Spanish bosses to contact workers out-of-hours if it breaks the legislation, sectoral collective bargaining agreements, or private arrangements made on a company level.

Whether or not most bosses respect this, however, is an entirely different matter. 

READ ALSO: Spain’s Valencia begins four-day work week trial