What is Right to Disconnect Bill 2025? Amid debate over work-life balance, new bill in Lok Sabha creates buzz

At a time when Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy says he does not believe in work-life balance and advocates for 72-hour work week, Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule introduced a private member's Bill in the Lower House on Friday, which seeks to protect employees from after-hours work demands.

Supriya Sule introduced "The Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025" which “aims to foster a better quality of life and a healthier work-life balance by reducing the burnout caused by today's digital culture.”

The Bill was first introduced on October 28, 2019.

What is the ‘Right to Disconnect Bill 2025’ introduced in Lok Sabha? Mint explains in 10 simple points:

1. The private member bill provides every employee the right to refuse to answer calls and emails outside work hours. "Every employee shall have the right to disconnect out of work hours," it says.

2. As per the Bill, the 'Right to Disconnect' means that while the employer may contact the worker after work hours, the employee is not obliged to reply or shall have the right to refuse to answer such calls

3. But if the employee chooses to respond, he/she shall be entitled to get overtime pay "in such manner as may be prescribed," the Bill says. It states that every employee working during out-of-work hours, who has mutually agreed to do so, shall be entitled to overtime pay at the normal wage rate.

4. It further provided that if an employee refuses to reply to any call during out-of-work hours, he/she shall not be subject to any disciplinary action by the employer.

5. The Bill, however, provided that an employer may contact any employee either through telecom, videocall, message, email, or other form of communication out-of-work hours, during the time mutually agreed upon by such employee and the employer.

6. It also proposes that the appropriate government shall provide counseling services to employees to help them maintain work-life balance.

7. The Bill also calls for setting up "digital detox centres" and provide "digital detox counseling services" to citizens for reasonable personal use of digital and communication tools.

8. "The Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025" seeks to impose sanctions at a rate of 1 per cent of the total remuneration of its employees on entities (companies or societies) for any non-compliance with the provisions of the Bill.

The debate over work-life balance

The Right to Disconnect Bill comes at a time when remote work, digital communications, and “on-call culture” have become widespread.

In the past few years, the debate over work-life balance has gained prominence, not just on social media and among GenZ, but also among top industry leaders. Here's what they said.

In 2023, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy sparked a massive debate by advocating for 70 hours a week.

A year later, Murthy stood by his statement and told CNBC-TV18 at the Global Leadership Summit in Mumbai, “I don't believe in work-life balance...I have not changed my view; I will take this with me to my grave."

Later, Larsen and Toubro's Chairman, SN Subrahmanyan, had said he regrets not making employees work on their Sundays. He supported the 90-hour work week narrative which people should follow to be “on top of the world.”

“I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy, because I work on Sundays,” the L&T executive was heard saying in an undated video that emerged on the social media platform Reddit.

“What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife?” questioned Subrahmanyan, and said, “Come on, get to the office and start working.”

Meanwhile, Adani Group Founder and Chairman Gautam Adani was also seen discussing work-life balance. The billionaire said if someone spends eight hours with the family, “biwi bhaag jaayegi” (spouse will leave).

He also said that work-life balance is maintained when you do things you like to do, Mint reported earlier.

“Your work-life balance should not be imposed on me or vice versa,” said Adani, underscoring that focusing on someone else's work-life balance strategy might not be advisable.

Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal also supported the working long hours narrative and said that the concept of having Saturday and Sunday a holiday is a “Western import”, which has gained traction due to the industrial revolution.

“In India, we never had Saturdays and Sundays; we had the lunar calendar, and we had holidays based on that,” said Aggarwal. “We had one or two days monthly,” he said.

Another viral comment on work-life balance came from Shark Tank India Judge and Executive Director - India Business of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Namita Thapar.

Thapar pointed out that salaried employees' performance and work culture could not be compared to that of the founders.

“It’s different for employees,” said Namita Thapar on the Humans of Bombay podcast. “This is a crock of bull****. Pardon my language. I completely disagree,” she said.