• French workers win 'right to disconnect' from mobilephones after office hours
    20 replies, posted
[quote]PARIS: French companies will be required to guarantee a "right to disconnect" to their employees from Sunday (Jan 1) as the country seeks to tackle the modern-day scourge of compulsive out-of-hours email checking. From Jan 1, a new employment law will enter into force that obliges organisations with more than 50 workers to start negotiations to define the rights of employees to ignore their smartphones. Overuse of digital devices has been blamed for everything from burnout to sleeplessness as well as relationship problems, with many employees uncertain of when they can switch off. The French measure is intended to tackle the so-called "always-on" work culture that has led to a surge in usually unpaid overtime - while also giving employees flexibility to work from outside the office. "There's a real expectation that companies will seize on the 'right to disconnect' as a protective measure," said Xavier Zunigo, a French workplace expert, 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," added Zunigo, who is an academic and director of research group Aristat. The measure was introduced by Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri, who commissioned a report submitted in September 2015 which warned about the health impact of "info-obesity" which afflicts many workplaces. Under the new law, companies will be obliged to negotiate with employees to agree on their rights to switch off and ways they can reduce the intrusion of work into their private lives. If a deal cannot be reached, the company must publish a charter that would make explicit the demands on and rights of employees out-of-hours. Trade unions in France which see themselves as guardians of France's highly protected workplace and famously short working week of 35 hours have long demanded action. But the new "right to disconnect", part of a much larger and controversial reform of French labour law, foresees no sanction for companies which fail to define it. WORK-LIFE BALANCING ACT Left-leaning French newspaper Liberation praised the move in an editorial on Friday saying that the law was needed because "employees are often judged on their committment to their companies and their availability." Some large groups such as Volkswagen and Daimler in Germany or nuclear power company Areva and insurer Axa in France have already taken steps to limit out-of-hours messaging to reduce burnout among workers. Some measures include cutting email connections in the evening and weekends or even destroying emails automatically that are sent to employees while they are on holiday. A study published by French research group Eleas in October showed that more than a third of French workers used their devices to do work out of hours every day. Around 60 percent of workers were in favour of regulating to clarify their rights. But computing and work-life balance expert Anna Cox from University of College London (UCL) says that companies must take into account demands from employees for both protection and flexibility. "For some people, they want to work for two hours every evening, but want to be able to switch off between 3-5 pm when they pick their kids up and are cooking dinner," she told AFP.[/quote] [url]http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/french-workers-win-right-to-disconnect/3405016.html?cid=fbcna[/url]
I'm still amazed knowing people like this that this was ever a thing. I mean, fuck off unless you pay me more. I get two days off a week. You get the other five. Don't fucking try and be serious and ask me work question at 10AM on a Saturday.
France on point again with its labor laws
[QUOTE=pentium;51604411]I'm still amazed knowing people like this that this was ever a thing. I mean, fuck off unless you pay me more. I get two days off a week. You get the other five. Don't fucking try and be serious and ask me work question at 10AM on a Saturday.[/QUOTE] Meanwhile, in Japan, companies give out flipphones to employees
The US will never adopt this. Shame.
[QUOTE=Anti Christ;51604484]The US will never adopt this. Shame.[/QUOTE] Right-to-Work states sure as fuck wont.
So let me get this straight, you were pretty much forced to have your phone on you all time, because you might be called to come into work? That sounds really dumb, good that this came in.
[QUOTE=Xonax;51604669]So let me get this straight, you were pretty much forced to have your phone on you all time, because you might be called to come into work? That sounds really dumb, good that this came in.[/QUOTE] Not necessarily, but you would have to monitor your work emails in the evening in case an urgent mail came through which you have to action. It's happens all the time in my job due to time zone differences with Asia and I could see a law like this causing many problems to be missed until it's too late.
[QUOTE=Xonax;51604669]So let me get this straight, you were pretty much forced to have your phone on you all time, because you might be called to come into work? That sounds really dumb, good that this came in.[/QUOTE] Haha that's my retail job. I can't count the number of times where I've finished a shift after midnight (so I don't go to sleep until 2-3AM), and then I receive a phone call at 8AM asking me to come back in as soon as possible for another 9-10 hours of work. But it's like, if I say no then they'll stop offering me those shifts, and sadly I like $27 per hour minimum for call-ins. But no I'm pretty sure this law is being implemented so that French employees can clearly understand their after-hours obligations. Some companies may decide that they will keep after-hours communications with employees to a mininum, and notify their employees of that policy, while other companies may have to clearly warn their current and new employees that they may face some after-hours obligations as part of the job (working from home etc).
[QUOTE=shian;51604452]Meanwhile, in Japan, companies give out flipphones to employees[/QUOTE] Business hours are still business hours, however working late, taking less time off and high work preformance are considered showing loyalty and dedication to the company which greatly helps chances of retention and promotion. Japanese work culture is fucking stupid.
[QUOTE=Ishwoo;51604710]Not necessarily, but you would have to monitor your work emails in the evening in case an urgent mail came through which you have to action. It's happens all the time in my job due to time zone differences with Asia and I could see a law like this causing many problems to be missed until it's too late.[/QUOTE] The counter argument being that it decisions that important are needed, you need a new member of staff for those out of hours calls, not exploiting someone in their time off!
haha jokes on you I don't answer my phone unless I get a preemptive text explaining what's going on anyway! That being said I'm an overnight manager who works totally solo so I really don't get called in ever anyway...
-snip-
[QUOTE=bunguer;51605063]If it is that important, they can pay you for it. It's literally that simple.[/QUOTE] They do. This law applies mostly to salaried employees; people who are paid the same regardless of how much they work (and where after-hours work may be a component of the job). They're paid on the basis that they're an employee, not how many hours they work.
[QUOTE=bunguer;51605063]If it is that important, they can pay you for it. It's literally that simple.[/QUOTE] It's really not that simple in real terms. You could work an extra 10 minutes in the evening to approve something urgently (literally sending an email saying please go ahead) but filling out the forms and approving the 10 minutes of overtime pay would just be ridiculous for the money and hassle involved. I'm not saying companies should exploit their workers, but giving employees grounds to sue because they had to take 10 minutes out of their evening for an email is too far, especially in a business where people are already paid higher as the company expects this from them.
I turn off notifications for work when not working. They will call me directly if there is an issue needing urgent attention. Most "super important" emails can wait days without a direct call to my cell.
[QUOTE=pentium;51604411]I'm still amazed knowing people like this that this was ever a thing. I mean, fuck off unless you pay me more. I get two days off a week. You get the other five. Don't fucking try and be serious and ask me work question at 10AM on a Saturday.[/QUOTE] You think checking your email is bad? Try having to work 6 out of 7 days of a week + 2 or more hours of overtime within said 6 days.
[QUOTE=Xonax;51604669]So let me get this straight, you were pretty much forced to have your phone on you all time, because you might be called to come into work? That sounds really dumb, good that this came in.[/QUOTE] This kind of thing happens at the entry level in the US very often. Restaurants often do this to adapt to the variation in labor demand they see day to day. Great for them, but if you're poor it can really interfere with your life - complicating the process of working a second job and making the worker spend their own time preparing to work when they may not be called in. Workers rights are something that need to be regularly reviewed and fought for as times change.
My work doesn't allow bosses to call people into work or about work on days they're designated to be off I consider myself lucky to have a month rota in advance as my last work was whenever the fuck they decided I would be in, within a days notice too fuck that shit.
[QUOTE=Xonax;51604669]So let me get this straight, you were pretty much forced to have your phone on you all time, because you might be called to come into work?[/QUOTE] [b]That's what they want you to think, but that was never the case.[/b] In fact, french workers did not win anything with this law. The [i]right to disconnect[/i] is not needed because [b]there are already strong limits established between professional and personal life, and you can't force an employee to answer phone calls or emails[/b], unless he has high responsability (but in this case the employee automatically gains financial compensation/bonus, and he can negociate further). [b]But now, with this law[/b], this government of [i]imposteur-socialists[/i] wants you to think they are so generous and mighty, when they're just going to fix what isn't broken. It works. I had an ex-colleague so convinced that we need this new law. People here have become so uninterested about the very own laws that protect their own rights that they have become so gullible. Actually, if you read the new law carefully, the workers automatically lose, as per explained by the article brillantly: [quote](...) the new "right to disconnect", part of a much larger and controversial reform of French labour law, foresees no sanction for companies which fail to define it.[/quote]
[QUOTE=pentium;51604411]I'm still amazed knowing people like this that this was ever a thing. I mean, fuck off unless you pay me more. I get two days off a week. You get the other five. Don't fucking try and be serious and ask me work question at 10AM on a Saturday.[/QUOTE] Exactly. For better or worse, when I clock out, [b]I clock out.[/b] Work stops the instant I swipe my badge in the afternoon and doesn't start again until I swipe it again the next morning. I don't give a flying fuck what is going on down there in the meantime. [editline]31st December 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Ishwoo;51604710]Not necessarily, but you would have to monitor your work emails in the evening in case an urgent mail came through which you have to action.[/QUOTE] I don't even check my personal emails on my phone. In what world would I check work emails on it? As it is I'm already losing ~11 hours for every 8 hour shift I work each workday(20 minutes there, 20 minutes back, I leave 20-30 minutes early to account for random road issues, hour lunch, 30 minutes of breaks throughout the day, it all adds up). I have to run on 3-5 hours of sleep to get a reasonable amount of time with my family, my hobbies. The fuck do they think I'm going to keep working in what little off time I get?
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.