The plan was drawn up in the wake of the pandemic, when many Ontarians began working remotely. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Employment lawyers and human resource management professionals say it is a positive first step and can contribute to changes in certain work cultures, but many say it relies too much on a good employer to do it right. “The law is pretty straightforward,” said Matthew Fisher, an associate at Lecker & Associates Law who specializes in labor law. “What it really does do is require employers of a certain size in certain circumstances to make a policy,” he added. “The problem is that they are based on the good faith of employers … There is nothing in the legislation that requires the policy to be reasonable.” Ontario employers with more than 25 employees were supposed to have written policies in place by June 2 to clarify how employees can disengage from work-related communications. (Shutterstock / Prostock-studio) June 2, 2022 was the deadline for Ontario employers with more than 25 employees with written policies. They are supposed to describe in detail how employees can disengage from work-related communications, including emails, headphones and video calls, and sending or receiving messages when they are about to be out of work. The policy may or may not include details about the time of day, the types of communication that are acceptable, and who can contact an employee outside of working hours. Fisher says hypothetically a cynical employer could make a policy by saying employees “have the right to log out between 4 and 4:15 a.m. Tuesday.”
A victory for good employers?
Erin Bury is the CEO of Willful, a start-up company in Ontario that helps people plan online real estate. Bury says it preemptively pursued a disconnection policy shortly before Ontario legislation passed. Her company is just below the 25-employee threshold, but growing, which means she may need to get one soon. “Before the pandemic, we had an office in downtown Toronto and we were very in-office culture … It was very easy to disconnect, because you would just leave the office naturally,” he said. But the company now operates remotely with some employees in other time zones, which means that someone in British Columbia can send an email to someone in Toronto after regular business hours, he says. The company’s disconnection policy encourages employees to schedule emails, turn off chat alerts on their phone after hours, and think about sending a video message instead of making a late appointment, he says. The policy also indicates that, while there may be times when overtime work is required, if it becomes standard, there is an appeal to the employee, whether it is the management that addresses the cause or offers replacement time. Bury says Willful’s policy has been well received. He would like to see government policy as mandatory for smaller companies, noting that startup culture can lead to employee overwork. Steph Little, Bright + Early’s senior human resources consultant, says all discussions about legislation lead to better policies, even if the legislation itself is weak. (Submitted by: Steph Little) Confusion over the law has generally led to positive action from good actors, says Steph Little, senior human resources consultant at Bright + Early, a Toronto-based HR consulting firm. Good employers, including some who have less than 25 employees and do not need legal policy, have been encouraged by discussions around the issue, he says. Employers wanted to “be more proactive, anticipate politics and put things in perspective to ensure that people can disconnect.” Her clients reported better productivity and organization from both managers and employees when people realized they had to do it all within working hours. The spelling of work patterns that prove to be healthy and desirable is “really appealing to candidates and is also appreciated with existing employees,” he said.
Too much at the discretion of the employer
The problem is that not all companies are willing to go beyond what the law requires, which is not much, says Daniel Lublin, an employment lawyer and founding partner at Toronto-based Whitten & Lublin. “Few companies are going to be trapped by the inability to call employees for emergencies after hours,” he said. “It’s fake to call it the right to disconnect,” he said, “because a lot depends on the employer’s discretion as to whether they want it to be that way.” “It really has to do again with whether an employer has chosen to create a substantive right or not,” he said. But for companies that incorporate the right of real detachment into their policy, this means that employees could go to the Department of Labor if they were notified, suspended or fired because they did not meet something outside the timeframe set in the policy. Nita Chhinzer, professor of human resources and business consulting at the University of Guelph, says that unfortunately bad employers are likely to continue to be a problem despite the new policy. (Submitted by: Nita Chhinzer) Nita Chhinzer, a professor of Human Resources and Business Consulting at the University of Guelph, says companies that traditionally break labor laws “will not suddenly start obeying this one law when they do not.” Predatory employers will continue to do what they love and are “driven by a culture of fear,” says Chhinzer. However, “it will positively offer employees a course of correction” and the intention to reduce the burnout that comes from prolonged stress is very good, he says.
