Under France’s labor law reform, it is now forbidden to email workers on weekends.
An email from the office is the one thing that may spoil a leisurely weekend or holiday. A Sunday afternoon BBQ might be severely spoiled by the unwelcome incursion of work, even if there isn’t anything to do until Monday.
For this reason, France gained popularity in May 2016 for offering its workers 16 weeks of fully paid family leave and 30 days of annual vacation just got even more awesome when it implemented the “right to disconnect” rule.
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If your organization employs fifty people or more, you are not permitted to email a worker beyond regular business hours in France, as reported by Upworthy.
The reason behind the labor law reform in France is that research indicates that people find it more challenging to disconnect from their jobs during their free time in the digital age.
With this new clause added in labor laws of France, folks can make the most of their vacation time.
Benoit Hamon of the French National Assembly told the BBC, “All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant.”
Workers physically vacate the workplace, yet they do not stop working.
In fact he believes employees are hooked to their work on an electrical leash just like dogs are kept on a leash. Its like the work never ends and a person is overwhelmed by the texts, messages, and emails, which have taken over their existence.
To provide a balanced work-life scenario, companies are required by law to negotiate policies that restrict the amount of work that intrudes into the personal lives of their employees as per the labor law reform of France.
Companies are required to create “charters of good conduct” that outline the periods when employees do not need to be digitally linked to their workplaces, even if there are no repercussions for infractions.
The controversial reform in the French labor law that includes this modification on the right to disconnect is seen by some as strengthening employee job insecurity and undermining unions.
The only aspect of the bill that the French public has deemed favorable is the digital disconnect provision.
