Telework, hybridization and flexibilization of working hours: laisser-faire or moving towards political regulation ?

During the pandemic, many organizations around the world decided to change their work management methods and move to a hybrid model and to telework. While unions used to have negative views on teleworking (Tremblay, 2003; 2006), they now are defending the ‘right to telework’ in the new context where some firms want to adopt a ‘back to the office’ policy. Teleworking is not new and some years ago a good number employees worked remotely (Vartiainen, 2021), although the maximum percentage is about 40 % of the labor force. The percentages are similar in Canada and in Europe, although it seems Canada has more fully endorsed telework in comparison with France, where attitudes seemed to be less favorable to telework during the pandemic and afterwards and percentages remain somewhat lower than in Canada and Québec. However, on the contrary, telework policy and regulation is more developed in Europe, as the first European directive on telework was adopted in 2005, and since, France has adopted national legislation and now requires firms to adopt ‘accords’ on telework. Accordingly, many organizations have adopted formal telework policies, and some analysts consider that their effectiveness requires a telework culture at the firm level and a formal regulation and policy at the national level. So the question is: should we bring regulation and politics back to work and specifically to telework ? While Canada and the US have not regulated telework at the national level contrarily to Europe and France (Gillet and Tremblay, 2023, 2022), Canadian unions are now calling for some regulation and for a ’right to telework’ following the governement’s recent call to ’return to the office’ (from 2 to 3 days at the office, starting January 2025). Also, many IT firms who were amongst the first to develop full time telework during the pandemic have now called for a return to the office of all teleworkers, while they had previously authorized full time working from home. In our paper, we will start by comparing the data on telework and the hybrid model, in order to establish the compared frequencies in Canada and France. We will then look at issues and challenges, including the risk of overwork, of difficulty in disconnecting when working from home, especially for women maybe, as well as the decision making process (who decides who can telework and how many days, or which days) and ’right to decide to telework’. Finally, we will compare the politics, regulation or legislation (of absence of it) in Europe (mainly France) and in Canada (Québec mainly, as labour policy is at the provincial level in Canada, except for federally regulated industries, such as telecom, media and a few others- about 10 % of the Québec labour force for example). So the question is the following: is laisser-faire better for the development of telework or is regulation better for the well-being for teleworkers ?