We have written before about the french workplace phenomenon called the “49-employee company.” The term refers to a business owner’s strategy of keeping their number of employees below 49 in order to avoid the country’s expansive workplace regulations. Here’s a new law that may encourage the growth of 49ers during 2017 and beyond.
Starting on January 1, 2017, companies in France are being required to start a process that will when completed, give their employees the “right to disconnect” from technology when not at work. According to the Guardian, France is “trying to tackle the modern-day scourge of compulsive out-of-hours email checking.”
The employment law requires organizations with 50+ workers to start negotiations that define the rights of employees to ignore their smartphones.
Under the new law, companies will be obliged to negotiate with employees to agree on their rights to switch off and ways they can reduce the intrusion of work into their private lives. If a deal cannot be reached, the company must publish a charter that would make explicit the demands on, and rights of, employees out-of-hours.
Some measures include cutting email connections in the evening and weekends or even destroying emails automatically that are sent to employees while they are on holiday.
FIND MORE | The Guardian
VIA | Techmeme.com
istock
Also on SmallBusiness.com
The Affordable Care Act and the Rise of the 49-Employee Business