Legal Insider: Is the Right to Disconnect in France a Trend?

This is a sponsored column by attorneys John Berry and Kimberly Berry of Berry & Berry, PLLC, an employment and labor law firm located in Plaza America that specializes in federal employee, security clearance, retirement, and private sector employee matters.

By John V. Berry, Esq.

Effective January 1, 2017, employees in France working for companies with more than 50 employees were given new employment rights, including the ability to negotiate terms with employers about ignoring their work emails outside of normal working hours. The new French law has been referred to as the “right to disconnect” and could trend to other countries, such as the United States.

The goal of the new French law is to stem the tide of after-work emails cutting into the modern problem of compulsive email checking after work. The French have acknowledged that employers who require employees to check and respond to emails after work has lead to insomnia, relationship issues and overall less family time. The goal of the new law is also to reduce after-work stress.

Many individuals have commented in the news about the viability of such a law taking hold in the United States. It is possible to see some changes in the future as the line between work and home life blurs through the increasing use of and advances in technology. The issue has already started to appear in the United States with some workers claiming overtime for responding to emails beyond work hours. Some U.S. companies have already voluntarily instituted “no email” policies after work hours and on weekends. It will be interesting to watch as new policies and laws about after-work emails develop in the future.

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