Overview
- Introduced as a Private Member’s Bill, the measure would give employees a legal right to ignore work calls and emails beyond official hours and on holidays.
- Employees who refuse to respond after hours would face no disciplinary action under the proposed law.
- The bill creates an Employees’ Welfare Authority to run baseline studies on out‑of‑hours digital use, direct firms with more than 10 workers to negotiate terms, and offer counselling and digital‑detox support.
- Companies that require after‑hours work would have to pay at least the normal wage rate as overtime, with non‑compliance punishable by a penalty equal to 1% of total employee remuneration.
- Private Members’ Bills rarely become law, and the introduction came alongside related workplace proposals in the session, including Shashi Tharoor’s amendments on work hours and mental‑health safeguards.