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Right to Disconnect in the Digital Age: Its Legitimacy, Normative Construction, and Institutional Limitations

Author(s)

Xu Xiaoxue

Affiliation(s)

School of Political Science and Law, University of Jinan, Jinan, China

Abstract

The proliferation of digital communication technologies and online collaboration platforms has normalized remote work and digital labor, yet it has also blurred the boundary between work and private life, giving rise to phenomena such as "invisible overtime." The existing labor law system lacks a systematic response to digital forms of labor. As an extension of the right to rest in the digital era, the right to disconnect holds significant institutional value. This article demonstrates the legitimacy of the right to disconnect from three dimensions: labor subordination, capital logic, and the dilemmas of current legal regulation. It then attempts to construct a dual-track normative system based on labor standards law and labor contract law. On this foundation, the article analyzes the scope of application, subject categories, and implementation mechanisms of the right to disconnect in practice, and finally explores its institutional limitations under realistic conditions such as the imbalance of bargaining power between labor and capital and the incompleteness of consultation mechanisms. The establishment of the right to disconnect is not a wholesale negation of employment management, but a necessary path to rebalance labor-capital relations and safeguard workers' personal dignity and right to rest under conditions of digital labor.

Keywords

Right to Disconnect; Digital Labor; Invisible Overtime; Right to Rest; Labor Subordination

References

[1]Gryn V D ,Kotova V L ,Velychko Y L , et al.The Development and Implementation of the Right to Disconnect in Different Jurisdictions[J].Białostockie Studia Prawnicze,2025,30(4):137-160. [2]Rebelo G ,Delaunay C ,Diamantino F M , et al.Telework and Women’s Perceptions on the Right to Disconnect—An Exploratory Study in Portugal[J].Administrative Sciences,2024,14(10):261-261.