What happens when the working day no longer has a clear boundary? When work-related emails, calls and messages continue to arrive after working hours, and employees are expected to remain available in the evening, at weekends or during annual leave? These are precisely the issues at the intersection of digitalisation, labour rights and mental health explored by Dr Sanja Zlatanović, Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Social Sciences and author of the book Labour Rights and Mental Health in the Era of Digitalisation: Challenges, Opportunities and Perspectives on Occupational Safety and Health.
In an interview for the Institute of Social Sciences website, Dr Zlatanović discusses how digitalisation is transforming the organisation of work, the new challenges it poses for employees’ safety and health, and how a boundary between professional and private life can be maintained in an increasingly connected digital working environment.
The book focuses on protecting employees’ health in a context in which technology is increasingly embedded in the organisation of work. Particular attention is given to mental health and psychosocial risks, as well as to employers’ responsibility for identifying and preventing such risks.
When labour rights are discussed, attention has traditionally focused on working hours, wages, working conditions and the right to rest. However, increasing attention is now being paid to the ways in which the organisation of work affects employees’ mental health. In Dr Zlatanović’s view, the right to mental health at work should not be regarded as an entirely new and separate right, but rather as an integral part of the broader right to safety and health at work. This approach is also consistent with contemporary international standards, including the World Health Organization and International Labour Organization’s 2022 publication “Mental health at work”.
“Today, there is an increasing emphasis on an integrated concept of health protection that also encompasses mental health and the prevention of psychosocial risks”, Dr Zlatanović stresses.
Psychosocial risks may be associated with excessive workloads, the intensity and pace of work, a lack of autonomy, unclear roles, poor communication and insufficient support, as well as violence and harassment in the workplace and an impaired work–life balance.
“Psychosocial risks are not merely an individual problem for employees. They can arise from the way work is organised and managed.”
When the organisation of work creates risks to employees’ safety and health, their protection also becomes a matter of labour law.
“If the organisation of work creates a risk to employees’ safety and health, then this also becomes a matter of labour-law protection”, Dr Zlatanović notes.
Digitalisation has created numerous opportunities for more flexible forms of work organisation, faster communication and remote working. At the same time, however, digital tools have made work-related communication possible virtually at any time. Emails, phone calls and messages may arrive after working hours, at weekends or during annual leave.
The technological capacity for constant availability is not, in itself, necessarily a problem. The problem arises when the possibility of communication turns into an expectation that employees should remain available regardless of whether their working hours have ended. In this way, the boundary between professional and private life becomes increasingly blurred, potentially leading to longer working hours, disrupted rest and increased psychosocial risks.
“Digitalisation is neither inherently good nor bad for mental health. What matters is how we organise work in a digital environment and how we ensure the protection of employees’ private lives after working hours”, Dr Zlatanović points out.
In this context, particular attention is paid to the right to disconnect. Its roots can be found in traditional principles of labour law, above all in limits on working hours and the right to rest and leisure. Digitalisation, however, has made the boundary between working time and free time considerably more permeable.
This raises the question of whether the right to disconnect should be understood as a new and distinct right or as a mechanism for exercising existing rights in the context of digital work. From the perspective of labour law, Dr Zlatanović primarily sees it as a way of enabling the right to limited working hours and the right to rest to be exercised more effectively in the context of modern technologies.
“If an employee has the right to limited working hours and the right to rest and leisure, then a legal boundary already exists between time intended for work and time that is not intended for work.”
The purpose of this protection is not merely to allow employees to refrain from responding to messages after working hours, but also to safeguard their health.
“Its purpose is, among other things, to protect employees’ safety and health, including protection against psychosocial risks”, Dr Zlatanović emphasises.
Employers’ responsibility for safety and health at work cannot therefore be reduced solely to preventing physical injuries. A contemporary approach to occupational safety and health also requires the identification of conditions that may negatively affect mental health – from workload, pace of work and working hours to communication, the degree of autonomy and relationships among employees.
“Mental health cannot be regarded solely as an individual responsibility of the employee. When a risk arises from the way work is organised, the employer also has a responsibility to recognise that risk and take appropriate preventive measures.”
A particularly sensitive issue in the digital working environment is the boundary between professional responsibility and constant availability. Employees may be responsible for their work-related tasks, but this does not mean that they must be available at all times. The key question is whether availability is a matter of individual choice or an organisational expectation imposed by the employer.
If employees are expected to respond to messages and calls in the evening, at weekends or during annual leave, this is no longer simply a matter of individual choice, but a matter of how work is organised.
“In my view, the boundary lies precisely in whether availability is the employee’s choice or an organisational expectation of the employer”, Dr Zlatanović says.
It is precisely at this boundary that questions of labour law, work organisation, digitalisation and mental health converge. Technology has changed the way we work, but it has not eliminated the need for a clear boundary between time devoted to work and time intended for rest.
“I believe that one of the greatest challenges of the digital age is precisely to re-establish a clear boundary between time for work and time in which employees have the right not to work. This is not only a matter of productivity, but also of dignity, health and employees’ quality of life.”
Dr Sanja Zlatanović’s book Labour Rights and Mental Health in the Era of Digitalisation: Challenges, Opportunities and Perspectives on Occupational Safety and Health, raises important questions about how, in the context of increasingly intensive use of technology, employees’ rights can be protected, psychosocial risks recognised, and work organisation and protection mechanisms adapted to the challenges of the digital age.