Effective January 1, 2017, France has implemented a “right to disconnect” law for French companies. Under the law, French companies with 50 employees or more are now required to ensure that they have taken specific steps to ensure that their employees have a right to “disconnect” from work-related technologies that potentially invade the worker’s personal time. The law is intended to combat the “on-call” trend impacting workers across a variety of roles and industries as technological tools and improvements continue to evolve.
The law, in effect, allows for employees to be able to “ignore” after-work emails without facing professional consequences. The language of the law also dictates that qualifying French companies must “engage in negotiations” with their employees in order to determine ways and methods to reduce disturbance when workers are away from the workplace. In the event that the aforementioned negotiations are not productive, a company may establish its’ own standards. Some companies, for example, have limited the available times that meetings may be scheduled; others have imposed rules about how many e-mails may be sent on weekends and what situations call for e-mail communication in off-hours. One company shared that they have put parameters on the email system so that any emails after 7 PM receive an automatic response and are not sent out until the start of the next workday.
“The law is intended to ensure the respect of rest, time and vacation, as well as personal and family life,” the French government said in an official statement.
The new law has been critiqued by those who say it is yet another example of the French government’s tendency to become too involved in the affairs of employers through over-regulation. Another concern that has been voiced is that no financial penalties have been established for employers who do not adhere to the new law, and that without fines it will not be taken seriously.
Similar proposals have been reviewed and discussed in other countries in Europe, but France is the first to implement a law of this type. Such a move is considered unlikely in the near future for the United States.