At a time of debate on the hyperconnection of employees and the consequences for health, some employers may encounter the opposite problem when faced with certain abuses of the use of mobile phones for private purposes during work hours.

Faced with this situation, some employers are considering banning mobile phones in the workplace.

However, such a measure is likely to infringe on the employee’s individual rights and freedoms.

Although, to our knowledge, the labor courts have not yet directly ruled on the question of whether an employer may take such a measure, certain decisions and precedents allow us to identify a trend.

On the subject of employee telephone calls, the Court of Appeal held, for example:

“that an employer cannot purely and simply prohibit his subordinates from making private phone calls from their place of work, he must, however, be allowed to ask them to reduce them to more just proportions” (Court of Appeal, March 27, 2014, no. 38845).

In another case where the employer had formally prohibited the use of cell phones by employee bus drivers, the Court, without directly analyzing the legality of such a prohibition, nonetheless found that:

“The mere use by a bus driver of a cell phone, use which may be of short duration and without any other impact, is not in itself to be considered as serious misconduct.” (Court of Appeal, November 14, 2013, No. 38578)

We are therefore of the opinion that the Luxembourg courts would not recognize a general ban on mobile phones in the workplace but that this does not prevent the employer from setting rules and sanctioning possible abuses.