The right to disconnect

In his House Bill 9735, Congressman Rufus Rodriguez cited the French model, where employees have the right to disregard or disconnect from all forms of communication with their offices after work hours.

He is convinced that the French model ensures a good work-life balance for workers. He specifically included a clause to protect employees who refuse to be bothered after work hours from reprimand, punishment, or any disciplinary action.

Congressman Rufus is a multi-awarded legislator serving his fourth term as representative of Cagayan de Oro City. He has the distinction of having filed the most number of bills at 997, of which nine were passed into law.

His latest bill, HB 9735, may be contentious from the viewpoint of employers, employees, and the policymakers in charge of the economy. But it does not diminish his stature as a responsible, right-thinking, and prolific legislator because, as the saying goes, "one swallow does not a summer make."

We laud the initiative of Congressman Rufus, who may have been inspired by the French law and roused by his genuine love and concern for Filipino workers' welfare.

Cong. Rufus should read Thomas Friedman's book, "The World Is Flat," which tracks the evolution of work practices in the whole world that has made it one global community with time and geography regarded as unimportant.

Cong. Rufus must know that 60 percent of the world's population is now connected 24/7 via 20 popular media platforms like PMS, Viber, Whatsapp, Messenger, Zoom, Facetime, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, WeChat, Telegram, Quora, Sina Weibo, Tumblr, Douyin and many other lesser known social media websites.

Since then, the world of work has never rested, and the global community is permanently connected.

My co-employees and I were once corporate men reporting to many bosses, each having authority and influence over our careers in the company. Being part of middle management among the MPT (managerial, professional, technical), we were not entitled to overtime pay for work rendered after our regular eight hours.

But looking back, my colleagues and I believe we earned our promotions by being familiarly known to our bosses as reliable associates who were willing, able, and available 24/7 to attend and respond to their official and personal concerns, especially after office hours or beyond the call of duty. It was doubly inconvenient at the time because none of the 20 media platforms were available.

But we took pride and self-fulfillment to be on a first-name basis with our bosses, who were confident about calling us beyond work hours to seek our comments and input on some policies and urgent pending work matters that needed to be presented to our company president first thing in the morning.

But the most enjoyable part were the informal chats on topics that were not even remotely connected to official business.

We enjoyed the bragging rights during coffee breaks as we exchanged narratives on how many bosses called the previous night. Insecure was the one who never received any such calls at night.

The unholy working hours and communication between bosses and subordinates were par for the course at the time, even without the convenience of modern links. Those were precious moments that everybody remembers with fondness as they tightened the band of brotherhood, camaraderie, and kinship because we regarded the company as our second home and our colleagues as extended family.

ECOP president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. rightfully objects to HB 9375 as a disincentive to foreign investors whose headquarters are in a different time zone.

Mr. Ortiz-Luis reminded policymakers that we have a superabundance of labor laws, many of which are conflicting, irrelevant, harmful, and counter-productive.

We need to prune the Labor Code instead of adding more rules that confound the regulators and stakeholders.

In a highly connected and borderless world, to aim for a complete disconnect after office hours is impractical and will seriously affect our overall competitiveness.

While it is essential to strike a work-life balance, we should not lose sight of the realities of global connectivity in our collective drive to attract investments that will ultimately redound to the benefit of the workers.

In the end, it is not an either/or proposition but a working arrangement that emphasizes adaptability and responsibility to the demands of the work environment.