Your boss could soon be fined for contacting you after hours under new legislation in California. 

A proposed bill from San Francisco Assemblyman Matt Haney would make his state the first in the country to give employees the legal right to ignore non-emergency calls and emails once the workday ends. 

If the bill becomes law, any employer that violates it could face a fine of at least $100.

Haney, a Democrat, tells CNBC Make It that he was inspired by Australia's new "right to disconnect" law, which is set to be implemented later this year. The bill allows employees to refuse to respond to calls or messages from their bosses during their personal time, with potential fines for employers that breach the rule.

At least 10 other countries including France, Canada and Portugal have laws supporting workers' "right to disconnect." New York City considered a similar proposal in 2018 but didn't adopt it.

The bill has to move through several approvals before it reaches the governor, who would have until September to sign it into law — but if it passes, it would go into effect in January. 

What the 'right to disconnect' means — and which workers have it

Haney's bill would require employers to have a clear agreement with their employees establishing what their working hours are and granting them the right to ignore off-hours communication, including on weekends, except in the case of an emergency or for scheduling changes affecting the next 24 hours. 

The bill language defines an emergency as an unforeseen situation that threatens an employee, customer, or the public, disrupts or shuts down operations, or causes "physical or environmental damage."

If the boss breaks this agreement three times, employees could report them to California's labor commissioner and they would be subject to fines starting at $100.

The law applies to salaried employees but does not override existing collective bargaining agreements, so unionized workers such as teachers and nurses would continue to follow whatever it says in their contracts about off-hours communication.

Remote employees working for California employers are also covered in the legislation. The bill only regulates employers in California, so remote workers in California reporting to out-of-state employers are not counted in the bill.

Haney says the legislation only applies to managers and their employees, but that could change — so your co-worker who emails you late at night is in the clear (for now). 

Companies that routinely violate the law could face fines, but Haney says he doesn't want the legislation to be too prescriptive. Instead, he hopes it encourages employers to have "transparent, upfront" conversations with employees about when and how they work.

The increasingly blurry lines of when people are on or off work have "gotten worse" following the pandemic, Haney points out, as the gradual rise of remote work makes it harder to put a firm stop to the workday.  More than half of workers (55%) say they respond to work emails or other messages from work outside of their normal hours, according to a 2023 report from Pew Research Center. 

Challenges in making after-hours work communication illegal

The proposed legislation has drawn criticism from employers and other business advocates including the California Chamber of Commerce, which called the bill a "blanket rule" and warned it would be a "step backward for workplace flexibility" in a letter to Haney.

Joanna Starek, an organizational psychologist based in San Francisco, says leaders at some of the organizations she works with — from small startups to Fortune 100 companies — are "equally confused" about how to implement the bill if it's approved.

"If you have thousands of employees spread out across different time zones, how are you defining then coordinating everyone's schedules and the best time to communicate?" says Starek, who is also a senior partner and the chief commercial officer at the leadership consulting firm RHR International. 

Even if you all work from the same location, "employees have different personal responsibilities and demands on their time," Starek adds, "That makes it difficult for everyone to align … the law is quite hard to enforce."

Still, she calls the legislation "a step in the right direction." 

"People tend to be happier and perform the best when they have clear expectations of their job," Starek adds. "Healthy breaks are a good thing for productivity and our mental health — it's just figuring out what, exactly, those breaks should look like."

Another challenge of implementing the legislation could be the reporting process, according to employment attorney Tom Spiggle.

Complaints against employers who violate an employee's so-called "right to disconnect" could take several months to process and investigate, Spiggle, who has worked in employment law for over 20 years, points out. 

"State agencies are great but often understaffed and overworked," he explains. "The chances you're going to get some kind of successful resolution after filing an administrative complaint are pretty low." 

Spiggle also isn't confident a $100 fine will be enough to dissuade companies from violating the law. 

"You have to commit three offenses before you're fined, and for most organizations, $100 is pretty negligible," he says. "In theory, the law is a great idea, but the enforcement mechanisms as they stand now aren't going to provide enough incentive for employers to follow the rules."

Haney doesn't think giving workers the "right to disconnect" is the sole solution to some of the larger problems plaguing workplaces in the U.S. — but he hopes it helps hold bosses and their employees accountable for setting better work-life boundaries.

"At the end of this, I hope Californians have better work-life balance," he says. "And that this bill cuts down on the stress and anxiety that inevitably comes with being available 24/7."

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