California will legislate to ignore work calls during off-hours

California lawmakers want to pass a bill that would allow workers to ignore their boss's calls after hours. This is written by Yahoo! News.

The draft law aims to regulate labor policy, which has become confusing after the pandemic. The document provides for exceptions for emergencies or schedule changes.

Working conditions have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing legions of workers to work remotely or in a hybrid way. Some of these flexible hours and placement rules remain in place, making it difficult for workers to set a specific end to the workday.

In California, one Democratic lawmaker wants to address this problem by codifying an employee's right to ignore their boss's after-hours messages. .

"Now people feel always active and never turn off. The problem we have now — it's a gray area where the employee has to answer all the time when on paper they work 9 to 5», — said Assemblyman Matt Haney.

Bill 2751, filed in February, would apply to both public and private employers, requiring them to provide employees with the "right to disconnect’ with the employer during non-working hours. It makes some exceptions for emergencies or schedule changes.

«This is not to say that people cannot work long hours or have an on-call contract arrangement, but it must be clearly explained», — Haney said.
The bill is currently in the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, where it has passed two readings and been amended. It will likely need to be referred to the Fiscal Committee before a final reading on the floor of the State Assembly for a vote. If it gets a majority, it will head to the state Senate for a similar process.