French labour unions have signed a law forcing employees to shut off their smartphones at 6pm, only requiring them to fulfil the hours they are responsible for.
According to The Guardian, the measure was implemented after workers complained that they ought to be paid for more than 35 hours of work since their bosses contact them about extra duties even after the work day has expired.
The agreement will affect about one million employees of the technology industry.
Each company involved must ensure that its employees are under no pressure to browse through emails or any work-related material on their smartphones or computers after 6pm.
Virtually, all communication between employer and employee will be cut off at the time. So, if your boss contacts you about anything that’s not an emergency, it can legally be ignored.
The agreement has garnered tons of displeasure from around the world, mostly because it encourages the lazy, careless stereotypes long attached to France.
Many think that this attitude caused the implementation of a 35-hour work week in 1999, five hours fewer than the legally required work week of full-time employees in most big nations.
“While we poor, pallid, cowering Brits scurry about, increasingly cowed by the threat of recession-based redundancy and government measures that privilege bosses’ and shareholder comfort over workers’ rights, the continentals are clocking off,” wrote The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan.
It seems that France’s labour unions think that viewing emails whenever one desires is not a valuable tool, but an excuse for employers to require more of their employees than they signed up for.
What do you think, readers?
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