Portugal has made it illegal for employers of labour to contact their staff after work hours.

The new law states employers “must respect the privacy of the worker” outside of agreed-upon working hours and says “serious” offences could carry fines.

The policy was passed by the Portuguese parliament on Friday in a bid to improve work-life balance among the labour force.

The new law was passed in response to the increasing number of remote workers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Portugal’s Minister of Labor and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, said that the government intends to make remote working as easy as possible in order to attract new remote workers to the country.  

Under the new rules, companies with more than 10 employees can be fined for emailing staff outside their contracted shift hours.

The new law also makes it mandatory for companies to pay for household utility bills for their staff, such as internet and light costs, that will be incurred while working from home.

The new law allows employees with children to work from home indefinitely without seeking prior approval from their employers until their child turns eight.

With the passing of this law, Portugal joins the ranks of France, which gave its employees the right to ignore work emails outside of business hours in 2017 and Germany, where the Working Time Act states that daily working hours for blue and white-collar workers must not exceed an average of eight hours per day.