Legislating the Right to Disconnect
The right to disconnect has been in the news lately following the release of the federal government’s report on their year-long consultations about modernizing the federal Canada Labour Code. Have a look at the full report: What We Heard: Modernizing Federal Labour Standards. 93% of respondents stated that employees should have the right to refuse to respond to work-related communication outside of working hours.
The french example
In France, the right to disconnect was enshrined in law in 2017. French workers in companies of more than 50 people have the right to turn off their work devices outside of working hours. The law was passed amidst concerns about unpaid overtime and increased employee burnout. Digital connectivity was slowly eroding leisure time. France is famously protective of leisure time and work there is highly regulated. The French also enjoy a minimum of five weeks of annual vacation and a standard 35-hour work week.
French companies have also reportedly taken matters into their own hands by creating workplace rules prohibiting or disabling email sent after hours and prohibiting the scheduling of meetings in the late afternoon.
Technology has impacted our privacy in a myriad of ways. One crafty use of technology that we see more and more in workplace disputes, is employee made audio recordings. Employees are turning on their voice memo apps before they go into important meetings and covertly recording their conversations. While undeniably an audio recording is great evidence of what was said, the practice raises concerns and questions.
Further to our post last week about
This post is a quick update to our past posts on the legalization of cannabis. You can see everything we have written about the legalization of cannabis and how to prepare your workplace 
High turnover is a growing issue for companies. As I’ve 
The Canadian government’s legalization of recreational cannabis has again lately been a hot news item. Initially, there were some reports that recreational cannabis was to be legalized this week, by July 1, 2018. For a variety of reasons that date has been pushed back. Legalization is now set for October 17, 2018. 
