The aim is to correct an anomaly where digital technologies have created an obscure line between official work hours and rest time

A new bill is being proposed through Kenya’s senate to block employers from interfering with the work-life balance of their employees via calls, text messages, emails, or assignments past working hours, weekends, and public holidays.

The Employment (Amendment) Bill, sponsored by Nandi senator Samson Cherarkey, seeks to give Kenyan workers the “the right to disconnect in the digital age” and protect them against employers who subject them to extra work without pay, this year.

The bill states: “Where an employer contacts an employee during the period when there is no mutually agreed out-of-work hours, the employee — (a) shall not be obliged to respond and shall have the right to disconnect; and (b) may choose to respond, for which the employee shall be entitled to get compensation.”

Inside Kenya’s Employment Amendment Bill

As Kenya’s future of work keeps drifting to online spaces thanks to lower cost of internet and devices, the bill notes that constant digital connectivity is “eroding leisure time for employees hence affecting their work-life balance.”

To correct that, the bill aims to create a much needed “balance between work and private life to allow digital technology to have a positive effect on workers’ quality of life.”

Firms with over 10 employees shall be required to consult their employees or trade unions when formulating their...

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