PRAVO NA DIGITALNU NEDOSTUPNOST RADNIKA
THE RIGHT TO DIGITAL INACCESSIBILITY OF WORKERS

Summary/Abstract: The digitalization of work has transformed labor relations extremely quickly and in far-reaching. In a relatively short period, it has become possible to perform work anytime and from anywhere. The use of advanced technology has enabled employers to make their workers available to them outside of working hours, during vacations and on weekends. Research has shown that during the Covid-19 pandemic, workers worked an average of 30% or more of their working hours, which has had consequences for the health and well-being of workers. Working from home has also served as a justification for the introduction of digital forms of worker monitoring in the form of applications that signal to the employer any period of digital inactivity of the worker. Given the increasingly significant threat to the fundamental labor right to limit working hours, in 2021 the European Parliament adopted a Resolution with recommendations to the European Commission on the right to exclude workers outside working hours. The research we conducted focuses on three aspects of the right to digital inaccessibility: the first is the labor law aspect, in which we investigated European legal and judicial regulations related to the determination of working hours and the predictability of working hours. In this section, we pose a hypothetical question as to whether the right to exclusion and digital inaccessibility is a right of the worker or a duty of the employer. The second aspect of the research is the normative framework of national occupational safety provisions, in which we pose a hypothetical question as to whether unlimited availability endangers the health and safety of workers and whether digital inaccessibility is a prerequisite for a healthy working environment. The third aspect of the research is related to considerations of the labor law basis for digital forms of worker surveillance. The focus of this section is the normative basis and justification for digital monitoring of workers in the context of increasing availability and reducing the period of rest guaranteed by the Labor Act.

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