Implementing the European Social Partners Framework Agreementon Digitalization at the Crossroads of Collective Bargainingand Participation: the Italian Case of the Right to Disconnect*

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Abstract
The paper considers the right to disconnect as a testing field for the implementation of the European Social Partners Framework Agreement on Digitization (EFAD) in the Italian regulatory system. The right to disconnect has been expressly addressed in the EFAD as one of the tools that can accompany the implementation of new technologies in organizations and the development of new and more flexible ways of organizing work, by ensuring a balance between benefits (like a better worklife balance) and risks (like the evanescence of boundaries between work and private life). In Italy, the right to disconnect emerged in the legal debate about the regulation of remote work. The topic is not addressed into detail in statutory law. This gave social partners the opportunity to intervene extensively on the matter. The paper analyses the influence of the EFAD on Italian collective bargaining with regard to disconnection by means of a systematic and critical review of the different solutions envisaged by collective agreements signed in 2022-2023.

Keywords
Right to disconnection, European Social Partner Framework Agreement on Digitalization, Collective bargaining, Workers’ participation.DF