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EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

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Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#41

Post by lol768 »

dahfizz wrote: post #7

> The right to disconnect refers to a worker’s right to be able to disengage from work and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communications, such as emails or other messages, during non-work hours.[1] What does that even mean? Is the EU also going to come out with the "Right to breathe" and the "Right to go to the bathroom when you need to"? I'm really frustrated with how the term "right" has been wate…

Worker's rights _are_ rights of the utmost importance.

I'm curious as to how your perspective on these worker's rights and EU regulations generally has arisen ... is your primary experience of employment one based on working in the United States (which is ranked lower than a large number of European countries in the 2019 ITUC Global Rights)?

Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#42

Post by onion2k »

raister wrote: post #6

> The new legislation, which is expected to be passed by Germany's Bundestag parliament, would allow workers to write off €5 ($6) per day to offset extra heating and electricity costs. That's not feasible or scalable. As it is a balance, they will give you this but will take out somewhere else (less yearly increase and so on). It's almost a disservice...

As it is a balance, they will give you this but will take out somewhere else (less yearly increase and so on).

Doesn't a write off mean a reduction in amount of taxable income? I think the government is saying German workers who work from home will pay tax on (income - $6/day) instead of (income). It would have no impact on their salary and there is no cost to their employer...

Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#43

Post by maxerickson »

MereInterest wrote: post #15
CommanderData wrote: post #4

Love this. I've increasingly seen and heard employers trying to take advantage of the current situation and we need more regulation and protection for workers. People are being asked to do extra and too afraid to speak out especially with so many companies making redundancies. One area of focus for me is sickness and working from home. Sick days should be about rest and recovering both physically and mentally. Often…

Along the same lines on sick days, I think it should be forbidden for employers to merge vacation days and sick days into "PTO". Merging the pools gives an incentive for people to come to work while ill. For example, suppose somebody has 3 PTO days remaining for the year, and they are all earmarked for Christmas vacation with family. If that person catches the flu in early December, their options are (a) cancel Chris…

On the other side of it, it's nice to get the time off even if you don't get sick. Companies will tend to argue that sick time is only for when you are sick.

Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#45

Post by chmod775 »

0xfaded wrote: post #9
troughway wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What does that even mean? Is the EU also going to come out with the "Right to breathe" and the "Right to go to the bathroom when you need to"? Have you seen amazon's warehouse work conditions?

Every regulation like this is a band-aid, and more band-aids will just make the EU even more quintessentially the EU. If the governance focused on restoring negotiating power to workers, you wouldn't need to write to your MP to go to the toilet.

>If the governance focused on restoring negotiating power to workers

The right for workers to form a union is also a worker's right worth protecting.

But this is not a workable solution for every single employment relationship.

Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#46

Post by donatj »

MereInterest wrote: post #15
CommanderData wrote: post #4

Love this. I've increasingly seen and heard employers trying to take advantage of the current situation and we need more regulation and protection for workers. People are being asked to do extra and too afraid to speak out especially with so many companies making redundancies. One area of focus for me is sickness and working from home. Sick days should be about rest and recovering both physically and mentally. Often…

Along the same lines on sick days, I think it should be forbidden for employers to merge vacation days and sick days into "PTO". Merging the pools gives an incentive for people to come to work while ill. For example, suppose somebody has 3 PTO days remaining for the year, and they are all earmarked for Christmas vacation with family. If that person catches the flu in early December, their options are (a) cancel Chris…

I disagree with your assessment in the strongest terms as I have personally experienced them being separate as achieving the opposite most of my 15 year career.

Places I had worked including my current employer, vacation days need to be scheduled at least a week+ in advance. As a person who gets sick a lot I almost always end up having to take unpaid days off when I’m sick because I blew though my 3-5 sick days.

Places with PTO I can take my entire pool off as sick time. Never took an unpaid day at a PTO business.

Right now. I have 400+ hours of banked vacation time, but I have used all of my sick days for the year. If I get sick I have to take it unpaid or work. It doesn’t make any sense.

Honestly I think they should outlaw having them separate.

Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#47

Post by MereInterest »

matsemann wrote: post #37
MereInterest wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Along the same lines on sick days, I think it should be forbidden for employers to merge vacation days and sick days into "PTO". Merging the pools gives an incentive for people to come to work while ill. For example, suppose somebody has 3 PTO days remaining for the year, and they are all earmarked for Christmas vacation with family. If that person catches the flu in early December, their options are (a) cancel Chris…

Even better: Sick days shouldn't be a pool at all. In Norway there's X amount of sick days one can use without any hassle (all paid), to use any more all you have to do is show a doctors note. If you have to use more than Y amount of days (chronic illness, a more serious thing or something), the government will temporarily take on the responsibility of paying the worker's wages. I don't think people should be punishe…

Absolutely agreed, and that sounds like a reasonable solution all around. Having a pool of sick days leads to the same situation, just with different circumstances. (e.g. Somebody who has a planned surgery for long-term health issues needing to save up sick days to use for the recovery.)

Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#48

Post by vorticalbox »

userbinator wrote: post #38

Seeing this is surprising, as none of the places I've worked expects me to work outside of normal working hours, in the same way they don't expect me to do personal activities in their working hours.

Same with my work, however I have noticed I tend to work over my hours because I get wrapped up in programming.

Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#49

Post by gattilorenz »

maxerickson wrote: post #43
MereInterest wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Along the same lines on sick days, I think it should be forbidden for employers to merge vacation days and sick days into "PTO". Merging the pools gives an incentive for people to come to work while ill. For example, suppose somebody has 3 PTO days remaining for the year, and they are all earmarked for Christmas vacation with family. If that person catches the flu in early December, their options are (a) cancel Chris…

On the other side of it, it's nice to get the time off even if you don't get sick. Companies will tend to argue that sick time is only for when you are sick.

> Companies will tend to argue that sick time is only for when you are sick.

To me this somehow... makese sense? Of course a burnout counts as sick time, but for just getting "time off" there's vacation days, which are (in Europe) mandatory. Mandatory as in "your contract grants you at least X days off" and often "you need to take at least X-Y days off in one year"

Re: EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home

#50

Post by cyphar »

maxerickson wrote: post #43
MereInterest wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Along the same lines on sick days, I think it should be forbidden for employers to merge vacation days and sick days into "PTO". Merging the pools gives an incentive for people to come to work while ill. For example, suppose somebody has 3 PTO days remaining for the year, and they are all earmarked for Christmas vacation with family. If that person catches the flu in early December, their options are (a) cancel Chris…

On the other side of it, it's nice to get the time off even if you don't get sick. Companies will tend to argue that sick time is only for when you are sick.

Does the US not have guaranteed vacation days? Here in Australia all non-casual workers must be given 20 days off a year (which in my view is actually too little -- in Europe workers get even more guaranteed days off).

EDIT: This doesn't count public holidays, we have 10 or so public holidays (depending on your state) in addition to your vacation days.

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