Digital disconnection policy: what it must contain and how to apply it for real

Every Spanish company is required to have a digital disconnection policy, and most SMEs either do not have one or have a document nobody applies. The right is recognised in article 88 of Organic Law 3/2018 (LOPDGDD): workers have the right to digital disconnection to guarantee respect for their rest time, leave and holidays and their personal and family privacy, and the company must draw up an internal policy regulating it. It is also article 20 bis of the Workers’ Statute and, for remote work, article 18 of Law 10/2021. This guide explains what the policy must contain, how it is drawn up, what separates it from a piece of paper and how compliance is proven.

What the law says

Article 88 of the LOPDGDD establishes three things:

1. The right: workers and public employees have the right to digital disconnection outside legally or conventionally established working time.
2. Its regulation: the ways of exercising the right are governed by the collective agreement or, failing that, by agreement between the company and the workers’ representatives.
3. The internal policy: the employer, after hearing the workers’ representatives, draws up an internal policy addressed to the whole workforce, including management positions, defining the ways of exercising the right and the training and awareness actions on reasonable use of technological tools to avoid digital fatigue. It must particularly preserve the right in cases of full or partial remote work and of work at home with company tools.

Law 10/2021 on remote work reinforces it in article 18: the company must guarantee disconnection, with a limitation on the use of technological means during rest periods, and the internal policy must define the ways for remote work.

There is no official template and no register where it is filed. What there is, is an obligation to have it, to have heard the representatives, and for it to be real.

What the policy must contain

A useful document that stands up to the Inspectorate includes:

1. Scope: the whole workforce, with express mention of management positions and remote workers.
2. The right and its reach: what counts as working time and rest time in the company, with reference to the timetable, the calendar and the working-time record.
3. Rules for communication outside working hours: no reply is expected to emails, messages or calls outside the timetable, during rest, holidays, leave or sick leave; not replying has no consequences.
4. Defined exceptions: what counts as an emergency, who may trigger it, through which channel other than the usual one and how the time is compensated if it involves work.
5. Technical measures: scheduled sending of emails, out-of-hours notices in signatures, muted notifications in corporate tools, no requirement to keep devices on outside working hours.
6. Remote work: availability schedule agreed in the remote-work agreement, tools and their use, and guaranteed disconnection.
7. Training and awareness: planned actions, audiences (with special attention to managers) and frequency.
8. Owners and channel for raising breaches, and a no-reprisal guarantee.
9. Follow-up: indicators, periodic review with the representatives and updating.
10. Relationship with other rules: agreement, remote-work agreement, harassment protocol, device-use policy (article 87 of the LOPDGDD).

How it is drawn up

1. Review the agreement: many already regulate disconnection and set minimums the policy must respect.
2. Honest diagnosis: when emails are sent, who replies at ten at night, which messaging groups exist and who feeds them. The working-time record and overtime are the first data.
3. Draft with the ten sections above, adapted to the company’s reality: an office is not the same as a service with on-call duty.
4. Hearing of the workers’ legal representatives, with the consultation on record; if there is no representation, communication to the workforce and a record of it.
5. Approval by management, publication and delivery to the whole workforce with acknowledgement of receipt.
6. Training, especially for people managers, because disconnection is broken by managers, not by staff.
7. Inclusion at onboarding for new hires and in the remote-work agreement.

The difference between having a policy and complying with it

The document protects nobody if messages from the manager keep arriving at nine at night. The policy is complied with when:

• Managers set the example: they schedule emails, do not write to the group outside hours and do not treat availability as merit.
• Emergencies have their own channel, separate from email and the usual messaging, used only when they are emergencies.
• The working-time record shows what happens: if recorded hours end at 18:00 and emails go out at 22:00, there is unrecorded work, and the Inspectorate reads it that way.
• Nobody is penalised for not replying outside their hours, and whoever raises it has a channel.
• It is measured: out-of-hours emails, overtime, short absences, and action follows.

It is one of the retention measures that cost nothing, as we explain in talent retention in SMEs.

What happens if you do not have it or do not comply

Not drawing up the internal policy or breaching the right to disconnection is penalised under the Law on Infringements and Penalties in the Social Order as a serious infringement in employment relations, with fines of €751 to €7,500 depending on the grade, and the Inspectorate asks for it more and more in visits on working time and remote work. In addition, out-of-hours work the company knows of and allows is working time: it generates overtime, with its limits and its pay or compensation, as we explain in overtime in the SME. And in remote work, failing to guarantee disconnection is a specific infringement of Law 10/2021. The full table is in penalties for failing to comply with time tracking.

How LapsoWork makes it easier

The policy is published in the document manager and each person signs receipt from the app, with the date, which proves delivery to the whole workforce; time tracking records actual working time and its reports of effective hours, overtime and deviations show whether rest is respected; and the remote work module records remote working days with the availability schedule of the agreement, as we detail in remote work in Spain: obligations. From €2 per employee per month.

Frequently asked questions

Is a digital disconnection policy mandatory for all companies in Spain?

Yes. Article 88 of the LOPDGDD requires every employer, regardless of size, to draw up an internal digital disconnection policy addressed to the whole workforce, including managers, after hearing the workers’ representatives, defining the ways of exercising the right and the training and awareness actions.

What must the digital disconnection policy include?

The scope, the definition of working and rest time, the rules for communication outside working hours, the defined exceptions for emergencies and their channel, the technical measures, the rules for remote work, the planned training and awareness, the owners and the channel for breaches, and follow-up and review.

Does the disconnection policy have to be negotiated with representatives?

The ways of exercising the right are governed by the agreement or by agreement with the representatives; the internal policy is drawn up by the company after hearing the workers’ representatives, with the consultation on record. If there is no representation, it is communicated to the workforce and the communication is recorded.

Can the company require a reply to an email outside working hours?

Not as a general rule: outside working time the worker has the right not to attend to the company’s digital means and may not be penalised for it. The policy may provide defined exceptions for real emergencies, with their own channel and compensation of the time if it involves work.

How does the company prove it complies with digital disconnection?

With the policy published and delivered to the whole workforce with acknowledgement, the record of the hearing of representatives, the training carried out, a working-time record that reflects real rest and overtime reports consistent with it. A document without this evidence offers no protection before the Inspectorate.

Conclusion

The digital disconnection policy is mandatory for all companies and must say what is expected outside working hours, what an emergency is, how remote work is protected and what training is given, with a hearing of the representatives and delivery to the whole workforce. What makes it real is managers setting the example, an emergency channel separate from email and a working-time record showing that rest is respected. To publish it, deliver it with a signature and measure compliance, try LapsoWork free for 30 days.