Employers should prepare for closer scrutiny of their after-hours communications with their workers, as some jurisdictions consider penalties for bosses who require underlings to respond to their late-night calls, emails and text messages.
A measure pending in New Jersey's General Assembly establishes a $100 fine for an employer who repeatedly expects workers to respond to late-night communications.
Other such measures have been introduced in California and Washington state, but appear stalled, and New York City discussed enacting a measure governing after-hours work communications during the COVID-19 pandemic
Meanwhile, so-called right-to-disconnect laws are proving popular overseas, as Australia enacted a law that fines companies more than $12,000 for penalizing workers who ignore after-hours communications from work. The Canadian province of Ontario and several European nations also have passed similar laws.
The California measure is expected to come back for a vote after a revamp, and interest in after-hours expectations remains high, according to Nicole Falcey, who represents management in employment matters at FordHarrison in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Those countries that have adopted right-to-disconnect laws have mostly done so since COVID, Falcey said.
The pandemic caused a blurring of boundaries between work and personal life, and that blurring persists as many workers adopt a hybrid of in-office and work-from-home models, Falcey said.
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