The French wing of British pest control and hygiene company Rentokil Initial has been ordered to pay a former employee €60,000 after it breached his ‘right to disconnect’ from work outside of office hours, reports The Telegraph. In its decision dated 12 July 2018, France’s Court de Cassation, its Supreme Court, found it unfair for the unnamed former employee, a former South West regional director of Rentokil Initial in France, to have to “permanently leave his telephone on…to respond to requests from his subordinates or customers” in case of any problems while not at work. The former employee was fired in 2011 and took the employer to the worker’s tribunal, asking for compensation for the extra hours "on call". The court ruled that given that his number was provided as one of the directors to call should problems arise, that amounted to him being “on call”, and that he should be paid for his time. The ruling is said to be the first of its kind since the 2016 French law on the right to switch off such electronic devices outside office hours became effective on 1 January 2017. The law came in response to an “always on” culture that led a surge in unusually unpaid overtime. Even before the 2016 law, French law recognised a contractual right to disconnect for employees working from home.