Tech backlash builds to proposed California bill giving workers the ‘right to disconnect’ after hours

A new bill from San Francisco Assembly Member Matt Haney would clearly outline when companies can communicate with their employees during off hours, following other countries that have passed so-called “right to disconnect” laws.

The bill would require companies to lay out the expected working hours in employment contracts ahead of time. It would also give state labor authorities the power to investigate and fine companies that show a pattern of barging in on their employees’ personal time.

“Work has changed drastically compared to what it was just 10 years ago. Smartphones have blurred the boundaries between work and home life,” Haney said in a statement. “Workers shouldn’t be punished for not being available 24/7 if they’re not being paid for 24 hours of work.”

The bill would make exceptions for emergencies, as well as texts and calls related to last-minute scheduling issues, among other carve-outs.

The California Chamber of Commerce business group said  on Monday that it was opposed to the proposed legislation.

“The bill will effectively subject all employees to a rigid working schedule and prohibit communication between employers and employees absent an emergency,” the chamber said in a letter addressed to Haney from senior policy advocate Ashley Hoffman.

Hoffman said California already has the most stringent labor laws in the U.S. to deter work outside scheduled hours, including overtime pay, meal and rest breaks, and on-call and standby pay.

Haney told the Chronicle that was not the intention of the bill, the idea for which came to him during a recent trip to Europe where similar laws are already in effect.

“We’re simply saying there should be consent around when (people) are working and not,” Haney said. “Not an expectation of 24/7 availability in a contract that they have not agreed to, and that gives people no time where they can expect to be not working.”

Heavily unionized industries such as the health care and airlines industries would likely be the least affected, since their working hours are hashed out at the bargaining table in many cases. The bill specifically allows collective bargaining agreements to take precedence over “right to disconnect” protections.

Other industries with less union penetration, such as technology, would likely see clearer rules ahead of time about when coders would be required to pull all-nighters to ship the latest update, for example.

That idea did not sit well with some members of the city’s hard-charging tech sector.

Gary Tan, the outspoken CEO of startup accelerator Y Combinator took to X Tuesday to deride the proposal as a productivity killer and continue his long running criticism of Haney. “Legalize hard work,” Tan wrote. “Haney is spreading nonsense again, from the guy who killed algebra and spun up the fentanyl crisis in the Tenderloin,” he wrote, reposting a news story about the proposal. “Is this a foreign op or what?” Tan wrote.

Tan has criticized Haney for the decision to move Algebra 1 out of middle school when Haney was on the San Francisco School Board and for his handling of the fentanyl and opioid epidemic when Haney represented the Tenderloin on the Board of Supervisors.

Paul Graham, one of the founders of Y Combinator, wrote on X that “some of the very best work is done late at night. Not just at startups, but in research too. That’s when you can work on hard problems without distractions.”

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian responded to the post, saying: “This is a terrible idea for a law.”

Another long time technology investor said the bill would place another piece of regulation on businesses in a state that already has enough.

“Nobody is going to leave the state over this,” said Lee Edwards, an early stage tech investor at San Francisco-based Root Ventures. But in the startup world, being online or available all the time is part of surviving as a company. Edwards said he just doled out funding to a team of 24-year-old startup founders trying to compete with multibillion dollar tech behemoths. “They’re not going to do that nine to five,” he said.

Ultimately, Edwards said, it might not be a bad thing if techies know ahead of time what the expectations are at a particularly company before jumping in. But, he joked, some startups might just make the fines another line item in their budgets.

The mechanism for enforcement would rely on reporting by employees, via complaints made to the California Labor Commissioner Office. Companies could be investigated and potentially see fines issued similar to a wage claim, said Aymara Ledezma, an attorney partner with labor law firm Fisher & Phillips LLP.

She said the bill was, at this early stage, vague on some key points. Those included how the law would affect salaried, exempt employees. And despite the language about emergencies, she said that did not cover every unique situation, like a lawyer responding to a client’s communication off hours, for example.

Hoffman said the bill failed to take into account the different working arrangements of different jobs and industries. 

“It would prevent the governor and state agencies from contacting their staff outside of normal work hours, which would lead to basic functions of the state being imperiled,” she added.

Haney pushed back on that. “To say that the functioning of the state is imperiled because we can’t force employees to answer emails all night is alarmist and wrong,” he said. Still, he said he was looking forward to working with the chamber on the bill.

He said the idea is to build in as much flexibility as possible with the input of businesses during the legislative process.

“We’ve crafted it in a way that addresses the recent changes to work brought on by new technology, but to also be pro-California business,” Haney said in the statement. “California businesses will be more competitive for desperately needed workers as a result of this law.”

The bill, AB2751, will be heard in the Assembly Labor Committee in coming weeks.

Reach Chase DiFeliciantonio: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice

April 1, 2024|Updated April 2, 2024 3:05 p.m.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle where he covers tech and how AI is changing the city and the region. He previously covered business, labor issues, and San Francisco’s recovery from the pandemic’s economic and other effects. A fifth-generation San Franciscan, prior to joining the Chronicle in early 2020 he covered legal and business news at the North Bay Business Journal and the Daily Journal.

He can be reached at chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.