FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG LEGISLATING A RIGHT TO DISCONNECT The law was published in the official government bulletin on 14 August, but will only be effective 90 days after the end of the restrictions put in place by the Argentine government in March 2020 to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. Prior to the adoption of the law on telework, a draft law(S723/2020) had been introduced in the Senate to establish a right to disconnect for all workers in Argentina ²⁵. The draft included several important elements of a comprehensive right to disconnect, such as a prohibition of sanctions and premiums for workers who disconnect and stay connected, respectively, a reference to the need for the social partners to negotiate the modalities of the right to disconnect, and the notion of a suspension of a right to disconnect only in case of emergencies or essential situations that have been previously defined. 3. 2 OTHER LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES PHILIPPINES In January 2017 a bill was submitted to the Philippine House of Representatives to amend the labour code and legislate a right to disconnect in the country²⁶. The bill would have expanded the definition of working hours to include time spent reading and responding to work-related communications after working hours, and would have established that an employee is not to be“reprimanded, punished, or otherwise subjected to disciplinary action if he or she disregards a work-related communication after work-hours". It would furthermore have added an obligation for the employer to state the hours when employees are not supposed to send or answer work-related communication. Following submission of the bill, it was referred to the Committee on Labour and Employment, where the matter has officially been pending since 17 January 2017. Later that same month, however, the Secretary of the Department of Labour and Employment did issue a statement saying that it is up to employees to decide whether to respond to work-related messages from their employers after office hours. He noted that “Answering or ignoring texts and emails from employers after working hours is a voluntary engagement of an employee, and they are not obliged to respond. The right to disconnect is a choice of an employee.” The Secretary added that completely 25 https://www.senado.gob.ar/parlamentario/comisiones/verExp/723.20/S/PL 2 6 House Bill No. 4721”An act granting employees the right to disconnect from wo r k- re l a t e d e l e c t ro n i c c o m m u n i c a t i o n s a f t e r wo r k h o u r s". http://www.congress.gov.ph/legisdocs/basic_17/HB04721.pdf 2 7 https://www.manilatimes.net/2017/02/01/news/latest-stories/workers­right-disconnect-dole/310057/ 2 8 Bill 1097”Right-to-Disconnect Act”. http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux­parlementaires/projets-loi/projet-loi-1097-41-1.html?appelant=MC 2 9 Report of the Expert Panel on Modern Federal Labour Standards, June 2019, Chapter 4”Disconnecting from work-related e-communications outside of wo r k h o u r s”. ht t p s:// w w w. c a n a d a. c a/ e n/ e m p l oy m e nt- s o c i a l ­development/services/labour-standards/reports/expert-panel-final.html 30 Bill 0726-2018”A Local Law to amend the New York city charter and the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to private employees disconnecting from electronic communications during non-work hours”, March 2018. https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/View.ashx?M=F&ID =6150433&GUID=F941D199-B386-40A4-9827-9A813B0FABBB 31 Now called the Department of Consumer andWorker Protection. disconnecting would not apply for certain jobs, and that employers must be the ones to implement a policy in accordance with the standards of the labour code, which will benefit both parties²⁷. CANADA There have been two separate initiatives in Canada to enact a right to disconnect. At the federal level – which covers federally regulated workplaces in sectors such as transportation, banking, and telecommunications and which covers around 6% of the Canadian workforce – and at the provincial level in Quebec. In Quebec, Bill 1097 was introduced in the National Assembly in March 2018 to“ensure that employee rest periods are respected by requiring employers to adopt an after-hours disconnection policy”²⁸. Under this policy, employers would have had to determine the weekly periods when employees were entitled to disconnect from all work-related communication, and would also have had to provide for a protocol for the use of communication tools after hours. The bill also proposed minimum and maximum fines for employers who failed to produce either a workplace disconnection policy or an annual status report. The bill only progressed to a first reading and was abandoned in June 2018. In 2018, the federal government issued a report from a year-long consultation on modernising the federal labour code, in which the right to disconnect was elevated to a prominent issue. The topic was further investigated by an Expert Panel on Modern Federal Labour Standards, which was appointed by the Canadian government in February 2019. The Panel published its findings in June the same year and recommended that there not be a statutory right to disconnect, as it would“currently be difficult to operationalise and enforce.” The Panel instead recommended that employers covered by the labour code consult with their employees or their representatives and issue policy statements on the topic of disconnection²⁹. USA In March 2018, Bill 0726-2018 was submitted to the New York City Council to amend the city's legislation and introduce a right to disconnect³⁰. The bill would make it illegal for private sector employers with more than 10 employees to require their workers to stay connected to work after their formal working day ends, except in cases of emergency. It would further require these employers to adopt a written policy regarding the use of electronic communication tools outside of normal working hours, and would prohibit any retaliation or threat of retaliation against an employee exercising or attempting to exercise their right to disconnect. It would also establish a complaints system for workers and a system of supervision for the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs³¹ tasked with enforcing the law. The bill would also provide for fines for employers who breach the law. The first hearing of the bill took place in January 2019 in the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Business Licensing. The response to the bill was mixed, and the bill has since then not moved forward in the city's legislative process. 8