On Friday 24 October Parliamentary Secretaries Andy Ellul and Rebecca Buttigieg organised a conference for social partners and a number of stakeholders to initiate the national discussion on the right to disconnect. The activity saw interventions from trade unions, employer associations and other representatives who participated in the discussion.

Both the confederation Forum Unions Maltin and the Malta Union of Teachers have included the right to disconnect in the respective budget proposals documents requesting the government to be proactive and to initiate discussions on the right to disconnect, anticipating forthcoming EU directives on the matter. This suggestion was taken up by the government and Parliamentary Secretary Ellul promised a discussion in the respective national fora including the MCESD.

Both For.U.M. and the MUT have already carried out extensive work on the right to disconnect at European level. For.U.M had participated in the EU level negotiations involving trade unions and employer representatives some years ago. More recently, the MUT participated in negotiations between the European representatives of education employees and employers. An agreement between both was reached and shall be presented in EU institutions shortly. The experience and expertise of both organisations in the subject shall be useful in the national discussion.

There is no European standard on the right to disconnect. Whilst the understanding of the subject is the same throughout, the approach differs. The common understanding is that an employee has X hours of contracted work. Beyond the X hours of work they have the right for family life and rest. However owing mainly to technology, the X hours of work are becoming X+1hour,+2hours,+3 hours etc. with the additional hours of work being deducted from the family time and rest. Despite the increase in the working hours, the payment is still issued for the contracted X hours.

The blurred divide between hours of work and family-life caused by an always-on culture is affecting employees and families. We hear frequently about couples complaining that one or both are always hooked to work through their mobile devices, even when they should be enjoying each other. We also hear about anxiety caused by work-related notifications received in mobile devices all the time of the day and week.

Some may say, and it is the narrative portrayed by some employers, that an employee is not being forced to remain connected and that it is somehow the employee's decision to carry out work outside contracted working hours. Yet, the same employers rarely take measures to channel communications strictly during working hours, opting instead for ongoing communications and instructions all time of the day and during the weekend. Despite claiming that they are not expecting an immediate action, the same communication is sufficient to disrupt the employee's family or rest time.

Things get more complicated when the work-communication involves chats. An employee may feel obliged to react to an instruction or a comment form the employer in a chat to avoid missing on or contributing to the conversation that would follow and that will eventually be continued through other communication means. Employees may miss upon important decisions which affect them if they do not react promptly to the same communication and this forces them to extend their work beyond their official working time.

Some may argue that some employees including those employed in management are paid to carry out work beyond their contracted hours. However, and unless there is a clearly defined on-call structure or disturbance in place which is duly remunerated, employees in management positions cannot be expected to be on call 24x7. If management grades are expected to provide services beyond contracted hours, the service must be clearly defined and the time when this is carried out must be clearly demarcated. Otherwise, there will be abuse. We receive various reports by employees in management grades who are expected to be at the service of the employer all the time - citing their 'management' grade and that they 'knew what the job entails'.  Clearly unacceptable and abusive.

This is only the start of the analysis and discussion on the right to disconnect and the model that shall be adopted in Malta is still unclear. The forthcoming national debate shall raise several questions on the theme but shall be essential to formulate the model to be adopted.  We shall be part of all this to ensure that the voice of our members is heard.

Marco Bonnici is president of the Malta Union of Teachers