Workforce Management Featured Article
Ontario Government Passes "Disconnecting from Work" Legislation to Protect Employees
All over the world, workers are discovering the benefits of working remotely. They are plentiful: telework cuts down on gas usage and commuting time, leaves more time for things like exercise and recreation, allows workers to get their jobs done in comfort (hello, sweatpants!) and eliminates painful office irritants such as unnecessary meetings.
This isn’t to say teleworking doesn’t have a downside. With workers connected from their homes, it becomes harder to “switch off,” and managers may be more tempted to push the boundaries of employees’ time outside of the office.
To address the problem, the government of Ontario, Canada has passed legislation to help teleworking employees disconnect from their work responsibilities after work hours. “Disconnecting from work” means not engaging in work-related communications, including emails, telephone calls, video calls or the sending or reviewing of other messages, so as to be free from the performance of work. The right-to-disconnect law will take effect June 2, 2022.
According to CTV News, the "Working for Workers Act” will mandate that Ontario businesses with 25 employees or more have a written policy about employees' rights when it comes to disconnecting from their work at the end of the day. These workplace policies might include, for example, expectations about response time for emails and encouraging employees to turn on out-of-office notifications when they aren’t working, the Ontario government noted.
"We are determined to rebalance the scales and put workers in the driver's seat of Ontario’s economic growth while attracting the best workers to our great province," Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development, said in a statement.
In addition from creating policy for disconnecting from work, the Act also bans the use of non-compete clauses, which prevent people from exploring other work opportunities and higher salaries at other jobs. According to the government, Ontario is the first jurisdiction in Canada, and one of the first in North America, to ban non-compete agreements in employment.
Edited by Luke Bellos
