French workers' 'out-of-coverage' rights

(Baonghean) - If generous holidays, universal health care, delicious food and fine wines are not enough to make the world jealous of France, then new laws that came into effect at the beginning of this year may very well do it again.

Among these, we must certainly mention the new regulation that allows French workers to “have the right to be out of coverage area” after work hours.

Work-rest balance

The boss sends an email at 10 pm - the employee is allowed to ignore it? The weekend off suddenly receives a message "just asking a question" from a colleague - wait until Monday to reply? It sounds strange, but this is completely a reality for workers in France under the revised Labor Code that took effect from January 1st this year.

Although there are still opinions that legalizing the issue of “disconnecting” from work after hours is a bit ridiculous, but after all, it is not. The above regulation was issued by France from the perspective that people should not be allowed to work anytime, anywhere, at any time, and workers also have the right to occasionally “say no” when the boss asks to “cut down” on evenings at home, or precious vacations, leisurely weekends with friends and relatives to serve work.

The “right to disconnect” was introduced to counter a 24/7 work culture that often results in unpaid overtime. Photo: Getty.

Since last year, when the draft law was brought up for discussion, many voices have affirmed the need to pass and promulgate a law with "revolutionary" regulations for workers.

For example, Ms. Myriam El Khomri - French Minister of Labor once emphasized the urgency of the law, arguing: "More and more workers are bound outside of working hours. The boundary between work and personal life has become extremely fragile. There is no shortage of cases of work exhaustion appearing in society."

And so, the above measure - one of many new laws that came into effect in France at the beginning of 2017 - is a vivid illustration of the process of finding a compromise between preserving traditional French values ​​and making concessions to the objective reality that is taking place every day in the contemporary world.

In essence, the new labor law does not completely ban work-related emails, but requires companies employing 50 or more employees to negotiate a new protocol to ensure that work does not “drag on” during holidays or after-hours.

Some consultants suggest that workers and managers should avoid using the “reply all” function on emails sent to groups, so that only the person in question receives, reads, and responds to the message, rather than bothering half the office.

Another approach that has been considered is to set a time each night after which employees are not required to respond to emails. And in fact, some companies have established such time frames, perhaps 10 hours from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. the following day, or perhaps 12 hours from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. the following day.

New trend?

In an article published last weekend, the French newspaper Libération praised the move to enact the revised law, saying it was necessary, especially given the fact that “workers are often judged on their commitment to their company and their willingness to work.”

This is not the first time a bill with such content has been discussed; similar documents have appeared in France, Germany and some other countries before, but have never been legalized. Along with the strong development of technology, the "overuse" of digital devices has become a common phenomenon, the root cause of many consequences, from exhaustion to insomnia, even destroying the social relationships of users.

French workers can now temporarily ignore work emails outside of working hours. Photo: Getty.

French workers are largely uncertain about when they can turn off their electronic devices, and more than a third of them use them for overtime work every day, and around 60% support a law that clearly defines their rights. So, for the “supporters”, the new law meets the need to deal with the so-called “always on” work culture that leads to increased unpaid overtime, while also giving workers more flexibility and mobility outside the company.

However, there are also critics who worry that French workers will fall behind competitors in countries that do not apply such restrictions, and who oppose government intervention in this regard. “In France, we are champions of passing laws, but they are not always helpful when what we need is greater flexibility in the working environment,” said Olivier Mathiot, CEO of the Paris-based online marketplace PriceMinister.

Taking a similar view, work-life balance expert Anna Cox of University College London (UCL) says companies need to consider their employees’ needs for both protection and flexibility. “For some people, they want to work for about two hours every evening, but want to be off between 3pm and 5pm to pick up the kids and cook dinner. Others are happy to use their morning commute to get some work done before heading to work,” she says.

This expert also believes that the world of work is changing as fast as technology, more and more people want to work remotely or collaborate with colleagues living in other time zones, so clearly there are still challenges and downsides to the flexibility that the new law aims to achieve.

Since the news of France allowing the right to “disconnect” has spread, discussions have been raised in many other countries about whether similar measures should be applied. However, whether the French move will spark a new trend in global society, time will still have to wait to verify the effectiveness of the law and the voluntary compliance of companies and workers.

Phu Binh

(According to Guardian, NYT)