The right to disconnect to pick up once the day is over

If telework has blurred the boundaries between life at work and life at home, opinions differ again on how to tackle the problem. Some players in the community would like to entrust the change of work culture to the companies themselves, but others, such as Québec solidaire, want to go even further implementing a lawas France did.

• Read also: What do political parties think of the right to disconnect?

The right to disconnect is the idea that an employee has the right to disconnect from their digital work tools outside of working hours. This definition comes from France, the first country to have incorporated this principle into labor law in 2017.

With the pandemic and the generalization of teleworking, the question has taken on a new dimension. Because today, “being at work” is often also “being at home”, which leads to greater confusion between work and personal life.

Moreover, several American studies have already shown that working and living in the same place leads to situations of isolation and burnout, among other things. Speaking of burnout, 35% of Canadian workers say they suffer from it, according to a large study by Mental Health Research Canada conducted at the end of 2021. This figure climbs to 41% among 18 to 34 year olds.

Employers seem to be well aware of this: in Canada, almost half of employees say that their company promotes work-life balance (47%) and tries to prevent these problems. In contrast, only a third say they offer programs or policies to prevent burnout (35%), according to the same study.

Québec solidaire in front of the parade

In Quebec, the idea of ​​getting a job was first popularized by the Quebec solidaire party, which tabled a first bill on the issue in 2018. This same bill, reintroduced in December 2021, aims “to ensure respect for employees’ rest time by introducing an obligation for an employer to adopt a disconnection policy outside working hours”.

The party was first inspired by the model of France and more recently that of Ontario. Since December 2, 2021, our neighboring province’s Law 27 provides that any company with more than 25 employees must implement a disconnection policy. Québec solidaire wishes to legislate in this area to force dialogue in the workplace, which the other political parties in Québec do not necessarily agree with.

“The right to disconnect is one thing, but above all we want to change the culture of work, explains Alexandre Leduc, MP for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve for Québec solidaire. When I have a good idea that strikes me at 8:30 p.m. at night, I want to text my publicist right away to tell him about it. Changing that culture means changing his reflexes, like telling me that it’s not urgent and that I can send him my idea tomorrow morning.

Although the Labor Standards Act protects working hours, working time, rest time and remuneration, there is no reference to the use of work-related devices outside working hours.

“What we want to do: force employers to open up a dialogue on the issue and ask their employees the question to start a change of culture”, pleads the deputy.

Difficult to legislate

The Order of Chartered Human Resources Advisors (CRHA) reacted publicly to the bill tabled by Québec solidaire and believes that it is essential to bring the debate to the public square without integrating it into the law.

“It’s impossible to legislate and find a solution that suits everyone, because even within the same company you can’t have a universal measure, believes Manon Poirier, director general of the Order. But we could require that there be a framework in each organization that takes into account the nature of the job.

Manon Poirier believes that employees have everything to gain by imposing their own limits, but that the organization must be vigilant about the type of behavior it values.

“If we offer a promotion to an employee who is always available and who answers his phone 24/7, we will feel that this type of behavior is in the culture of the company and other employees will be encouraged. to do the same”, gives as an example Manon Poirier.

What is more, the right to disconnect would make the application of a law very complex, the realities of work being too different from one company to another, argues the Head of Labor and Employment Law at Langlois Avocats, Marie-Hélène Jetté.

According to the lawyer, several variables make the legislation difficult, in particular because of the great flexibility in the hours allowed by teleworking and unionized environments which have availability bonuses provided for in several collective agreements.

But everything indicates that employers have everything to lose if they provide behavior that does not respect the disconnection of employees in their environment.

“In the midst of a labor shortage, if an employer demands things from his employee that are not reasonable, he risks losing his workforce,” says Jetté, referring to professional communications outside office hours or even repeated overtime.