California workers might soon have the legal right to ignore messages from their boss during non-working hours.
The Bay Area, a hub of the smartphone industry, has been instrumental in enabling bosses to contact workers at all hours via calls, texts, or Slack, including nights and weekends. However, a San Francisco lawmaker seeks to address this issue by introducing new legislation to make California the first state in the U.S. to grant employees the legal right to ignore calls from their boss after work hours until they return to their scheduled hours.
The Growing Demand for Working Outside Work Hours
The demand to reply to work messages after hours has grown, especially with remote work during the pandemic. This has blurred work-life boundaries, worsened worker burnout, and led many countries to consider right to disconnect laws, says the World Economic Forum.
In California, a Democratic lawmaker aims to address this by codifying workers' right to disregard communications from their boss after work hours. Assemblymember Matt Haney highlighted the issue, stating that people often find themselves constantly connected to work, noting the challenge of a gray area where employees are expected to respond at all times despite officially working a 9-to-5 job.
Assembly Bill 2751
Assembly Bill 2751 would mandate public and private employers to create a policy granting employees the right to disconnect from any communications outside work hours, with exceptions for emergencies or scheduling purposes. This effectively grants workers the right to disregard employer communications during non-working hours, as outlined in the bill's text, which would be established between the workers and employers through a written agreement and subjects the employer to a civil penalty of at least $100 if found violating the rule.
This is not intended to say people cannot work long hours or have an agreement for a contract where they are on call, but it should be made clear, said Haney, who represents the San Francisco area.
The bill is currently in the Assembly's Committee on Labor and Employment, where it has undergone two readings and amendments. It will probably need to go through a fiscal committee before being read a final time on the State Assembly floor for a vote. If it garners a majority vote, it will proceed to the State Senate for a similar process.
More and More Countries Enacting the Law
California would be the country's first state to consider such a law. However, more than a dozen countries have already enacted similar laws. According to the World Economic Forum, Kenya is the latest to do so, and France was the first to enact a right-to-disconnect law in 2017.
Haney's office informed FOX 5 that studies showed workers were "healthier, happier, and more productive" after these laws were enacted. The law would assist the state in competing more effectively against other states for skilled workers, such as Texas and New York for California.
