Companies and employers in France with more than 50 workers will be forced to negotiate on "right to disconnect" from technology to tackle out-of-hours email checking starting January 1.
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The law necessitates that employers negotiate with employees about less intrusion of work into their private lives. If the two parties can't come to an agreement, the company will have to publish a charter with clear demands on and rights of employees out of hours. However, there will be no penalties for companies that fail to come up with a clear set of expectations from the employees.
While technology has given the employees the freedom to work from anywhere, it also leads to confusion about when they are allowed to switch off from work.
The new workplace law introduced by Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri was brought into force after researching about the effect of technology on the work-life balance. Technology has been a disruptor causing burnout, sleeplessness and relationship problems for many.
"There's a real expectation that companies will seize on the 'right to disconnect' as a protective measure," Xavier Zunigo, a French workplace expert told the Guardian as a new survey on the subject was published in October.
"At the same time, workers don't want to lose the autonomy and flexibility that digital devices give them," Zunigo, an academic and director of research group Aristat, said.
The new measure is expected to help employees wean off the "always-on" work culture, which also leads to unpaid overtime since they are working from out of office.
French companies like Axa have already taken action to limit out-of-hours messaging to reduce employee burnout. The measures include automatically destroying after hours -- emails and disconnecting email services in the evening and weekends.
The country, which already has a 35-hour work week, is also part of the European Union where the court had ruled that travelling to work by tradesmen who don't have a fixed office like the gasfitters, sales representatives, is also work. The measure was hailed by trade unions and Socialist Party.
While the 35-hour work week was expected to increase employment, it instead raised the costs and decreased efficiency for businesses in France as hiring was not done. Firing employees during an economic slowdown is difficult in the country. The 1999 law hit investments and job creation, with unemployment rate being close to 10 per cent, highest in two decades. At least 25 per cent young people have been left unemployed as a result.
