French case shows the need for telework legislation

Over three years since the announcement of social partners negotiations for a directive on telework and the right to disconnect, and nearly two years since those negotiations were ended by BusinessEurope, the legislative vacuum remains.

While we can understand a lack of activity in the run up to and immediately after the European elections, workers are continually being impacted by the Commission dragging their feet and failing to legislate.

Studies have shown, time and time again, the necessity for common rules and standards, while also highlighting the positive benefits of implementing telework procedures. In one example, the Eurofound study “Working Conditions and Sustainable work: Right to Disconnect: Implementation and impact at company level” noting that workers in companies with a right to disconnect policy are:

• Less likely to work additional hours as they are not contacted out of working hours
• More likely to have greater autonomy over their own working hours
• More likely to report better work-life balance
• Less likely to report common health issues
• More likely to express satisfaction with their overall working conditions
• Are less likely to be contacted outside of working hours, and work fewer additional hours overall

Yet, in an era where many employers feel emboldened to abandon consultation, social policies and concessions that benefit workers, telework is now becoming a common target.

In France, large companies such as Ubisoft, Free, Société Générale and Amazon have begun unilaterally imposing mandates to end teleworking, despite the health and productivity benefits we have seen reported.

This u-turn has led to the erosion of many agreements between companies and their employees, often with the return to old working methods coming without consultation. Forcing workers to return to the office, without consultation with the unions, and without taking into account the impact on their personal lives, does nothing to promote social dialogue or the trust that employees should be able to place in their management.

Equally, it is not a reinstatement of previous working conditions. As telework was mandated during the pandemic, and then grew in popularity post-COVID, many organisations (including those mentioned above) have downsized their office space and available equipment, cost-cutting while teleworking allowed. Now, forcing workers back to a smaller, cramped and ill-equipped office is not only illogical from health and safety and productivity standpoint, but also from a basic mathematic standpoint. Where should professionals and managers work when their desk has been sold?

Symptomatic of the plight of workers, not only are their at-work facilities worse in many cases post-COVID, but the mass transfer of wealth from workers to the already wealthy has exacerbated even basic questions about mandatory returns to the office. Many workers now find themselves living further from high-priced commercial centres. The cost of living has negatively impacted the ability to afford and run personal transport. Cuts to services have rendered public transport less reliable in many cases. This is yet again another example of an illogical corporate idea trumping the needs of workers, and the reality of working life.

Employees at Ubisoft in France went on strike for the very first time in their history following their employer's unilateral decision to go back on the issue of telecommuting, and similar movements can be found in every company where this choice has been made. Workers simply want to improve their conditions and standards, while holding a say in the organisation and design of their working lives.

Needless to say, with a European directive this could all be achieved. In creating binding minimum standards across the continent, we can protect workers from the seesaw of corporate decision-making.

BusinessEurope’s failure to find agreement amongst their members should not condemn workers in Europe to the whim of their bosses.

As the Ubisoft workers in France have shown, it won’t be welcomed.