Achi news desk-
What would a “right to disconnect” look like for Canadian workers? One law partner in Saint John, NB, says it could be more complicated than putting cellphones on airplane mode at quit time.
As part of the 2024 federal budget, the Canadian government is proposing to amend the labor code so that workers in federally regulated fields would not have to answer work-related calls or emails outside of working hours.
Kelly VanBuskirk, a partner at Lawson Creamer in Saint John, told CTV News that regulated by federal workers are people who work in broadcasting, banks, telecommunications, and the postal service, among other industries.
He noted that other countries have implemented similar “right to disconnect” legislation, but Canada would have to determine its own approach to the policy.
“What looks to be true in Canada is that the government would amend the Canada Labor Code to require employers to be responsible for creating policies that will determine how employees may be entitled to disengage from their workplace ,” VanBuskirk said. “It looks like the legislation is in its conceptual stage at the moment so it’s hard to know if there will be many teeth in the legislation, but it could be argued that it would require employers to say when you are off duty, you don’t do that. You don’t have to answer your work phone or emails or any work-related communications.”
VanBuskirk said completely disconnecting for work communications can be a difficult task for some professions that may require some responsiveness for emergencies or disruptive developments.
“If you’re the captain of a ship and you’re off hours at your berth and something goes wrong on your ship, does that mean you can’t be contacted?” he said. “If your job involves monitoring employee safety, if you’re off-hours, does that mean you can’t receive phone calls or text messages about workplace safety violations?
“I think there are a lot of holes in the concept that will have to be plugged before the concept works.”
VanBuskirk said the federal government could police disengagement policy the same way it does workplace harassment policies, which can present its own set of challenges.
“Policing requires some annual reporting, but on a day-to-day basis it’s difficult to police these types of policies,” he said. “I’m not sure if workers should be too excited yet. I’m not sure that this is something that every employee will embrace, (and) secondly, I’m not sure that it’s the kind of concept that can be easily enforced.
“Because of the nature of the communication plan we’ve allowed to develop, it’s quite difficult to suggest that employees can simply disconnect and disconnect for a period of time each day.”
