Direito à desconexão e vigilância digital dos trabalhadores: delimitação ao poder directivo no ordenamento jurídico moçambicano

Abstract

This monograph analyzes how the Mozambican legal system addresses the challenges arising from digital surveillance and the demand for permanent connectivity of workers outside the workplace, in a context marked by the increasing use of information and communication technologies in labor relations. Starting from a constitutional and labor law analysis, the study examines the foundations of the right to rest, integrity, and the dignity of the human person, demonstrating that the right to disconnect can be understood as an implicit right within the Mozambican legal system, even though it is not expressly enshrined. Subsequently, the impact of new technologies on work organization is investigated, focusing on digital surveillance as a management technique, the reconfiguration of working time in telework, and the blurring of boundaries between working time and non-working time. The physical and psychological consequences of permanent connectivity, particularly the risk of burnout, are also analyzed. In the comparative normative sphere, solutions adopted by legal systems such as those of France, Italy, and Spain, which already expressly recognize the right to disconnect, are examined. Based on these experiences, the response of the Mozambican legal system is evaluated, highlighting a more structured protection of digital surveillance, through limits imposed on remote surveillance means, in contrast with an indirect and fragmented protection regarding the demand for permanent connectivity, based mainly on norms related to working time and the right to rest. Finally, the need for explicit recognition of the right to disconnect in Mozambican law is discussed, concluding that such recognition, combined with practical implementation mechanisms, may contribute to strengthening the protection of rest time and promoting more balanced labor relations that respect the dignity of the worker