If your boss calls, texts or emails outside of work hours, a proposed change in Budget 2024 could give some Canadian workers the right to ignore them.
Ottawa plans to introduce the “right to disconnect” to protect federally regulated workers from constant out-of-hours calls and calls.
The Liberal government unveiled the proposed amendment to the Canada Labor Code in the 2024 federal budget.
“One of the realities of life for all Canadians, but particularly the youngest, is the experience of always being available, always available. It’s not healthy, it’s not a good way to live,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday.
“It’s not even the way to be more productive,” he added.
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The changes will apply to 500,000 Canadians working in sectors such as banking, telecommunications and transportation, and are expected to cost $4.2 million over five years to implement.
France was the first country to implement “right to disconnect” legislation in 2017. Since the pandemic and the rise of remote work, other countries and jurisdictions have followed suit, including the province of Ontario, where it requires employers with more than 25 employees create policies in this regard.
It has also been a demand of PSAC, the union representing federal public service workers, in recent years.
Canada’s proposed “right to disconnect” is one of a series of tax plan measures aimed at millennial and Gen Z workers; “Many of whom have worked their entire careers without a firm separation between work and personal time,” the budget reads.
“We need to recognize the additional pressures that all Canadians face, but especially young people,” Freeland told reporters.
The two demographic groups, which make up the largest bloc of eligible voters, have struggled with the rising cost of living and an uncertain job market following the 2008 global economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“[This budget] it tends to focus on issues that will affect younger generations,” TD senior economist Francis Fong told Global News.
Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page says there are hundreds of measures “sprinkled” within the document, such as the “right to disconnect” aimed at millennial and Gen Z Canadians.
The government is moving away from its previous message of “strengthening the middle class to achieve intergenerational justice,” Page said.
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