EU jobs commissioner: Workers must have right to disconnect

’We’re not robots,’ says Nicolas Schmit.

Workers should have the right to disconnect and not be treated like "robots," Jobs Commissioner Nicolas Schmit said at a POLITICO event today.

If the EU wants to establish a sustainable society and economy, the right not to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week is key, the commissioner said — labeling the inability to sign off a "horror vision of the digital age."

“The right to disconnect is something very normal, because we’re not robots," he said.

This would not necessarily mean Brussels enacting a regulation or directive "but at least we have to push for it," said Schmit, whose portfolio also covers social rights.

Action is needed, he said, because while some companies have already taken action to guarantee the right, "unfortunately not all companies are intelligent."

France rolled out measures forcing companies to give their workers the right to ignore their smartphones outside work hours in 2017.