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On April 1, Assemblymember Matthew Haney (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill that, if passed, would make it harder for employers to communicate with employees during non-working hours.

Assembly Bill 2751 — a first in the U.S. — aims to establish a “right to disconnect” from emails, texts and calls to employees in public and private settings.

The bill mandates that all California employers create and publish company-wide action plans to implement the new right-to-disconnect laws, as well as requiring that all employment contracts in the state clearly outline working and non-working hours.

AB 2751 also empowers the California Labor Commissioner’s office to investigate and fine employers that exhibit a pattern of right-to-disconnect violations. The Department of Labor is designated to monitor compliance, with a starting fine of $100 for violations.

The bill would not bar employers from sending communications, but aims to sanction employers for punishing employees for ignoring off-hours communication.

“Work has changed drastically compared to what it was just 10 years ago. Smartphones have blurred the boundaries between work and home life,” said Assemblymember Haney in a statement. “Workers shouldn’t be punished for not being available 24/7 if they’re not being paid for 24 hours of work. People have to be able to spend time with their families without being constantly interrupted at the dinner table or their kids’ birthday party, worried about their phones and responding to work.”

 

Cut the cord

Studies show that Americans want more freedom from the workplace, with a recent survey conducted by Bisnar Chase of California employees choosing which country’s employment model they preferred.

The survey revealed that Californians were overwhelmingly in favor of adopting labor laws similar to those in France, where employees gained the right to disconnect from work. The law, introduced in 2017, aims to prevent employee burnout.

Californians also thought highly of labor laws in Germany and Denmark, highlighting the countries’ work-from-home rules and unemployment benefits.

The survey also reflected Californians’ interest in other systems, including Denmark’s “flexicurity” work model, which blends flexibility and security for employees, including Finland’s condensed four-day work week and Sweden’s 480-day paternal leave.

 

More employer liability

Some in the human resources industry, however, question the validity and potential fallback from the bill, raising concerns about what constitutes an “emergency” communication between employers and employees.

“Many minor disruptions may have huge impacts on employers but may not amount to the disruption needed to be exempt from the bill’s forbearance on off-the-clock communications,” said Eric Akira Tate, an attorney with San Francisco-based law firm Morrison Foerster, in a recent Society for Human Resources Management publication.

Critics also point to the bill’s one-size-fits-all approach; sectors ranging from quick-service restaurants to the health care industry fall under the same umbrella of protection.

Additionally, on-call employees are already paid for the time spent responding to after-hour communications, and the time they spend waiting for communication — if applicable. This looks to impact several different industries including health care employees, many of whom already operate under an “on-call” format.

 

What workers say

For employees, the concept of breaking away from work seems to be a mixed bag. Some prefer to be left completely alone after hours. Others are open to communicating after hours.

“The line of communication shouldn’t be completely cut off across the board, but employees shouldn’t get in trouble for cutting off that communication on their own time if they so choose,” said Alan Moffett, a music teacher at Hallmark Academy in Sanger. “If it’s a text that I can read and respond to in less than a minute during a commercial break, it’s not a big deal to me. But I’m also not gonna drop what I’m doing for something that’ll take a little longer.”

For some, receiving text messages, phone calls and emails off hours becomes a task of repetition. One local worker said she receives texts asking about her shift the following day, something that she addressed by leaving notes for the next supervisor. Such notes were outlined in company policy, but seemed to be ignored.

 

Need for space

While emergencies do happen, managers and employees have both expressed their desire to “detach” from the workplace during off hours.

“In situations like this, where managers are working 40-plus hours – they’re in the store every single day – it’s hard to detach from work when you’re at home, especially when there’s constant messages,” said Mikaila Thomas, a manager at Plato’s Closet in Fresno. “Retail is not an easy job and we need that space away from it.”

Other employees, however, prefer to be left completely alone during off hours, fully separating their work hours from their on-the-clock hours.

“I have my digital means so segmented that they’d have to break HR policy to get my personal details to get a hold of me off hours,” said another employee who preferred to remain anonymous. “And I don’t hide this fact.”

With some employees already finding alternate means to disconnect, the bill remains gray in other areas as well, with questions surrounding non-direct communications like sending “cc” (carbon copy) emails to coworkers during off hours.

“The statute presumably can be read to say no, the off-work team member cannot be cc’d unless there was an emergency as defined in the bill,” Tate said, adding that the bill ignores a key element of modern global workplace functions. “Companies operate and teams are comprised of workers across the world, in different time zones, which require flexibility, including checking an email or taking a call outside of the normal workday.”

AB 2751 passed its first committee on 4-2 party line vote on April 18. Assembly Appropriations Committee Republicans Juan Alanis and Heath Flora of Stanislaus County voted “no.”