Liberty, equality, fraternity - and now, the "right to disconnect".

Among a host of new reforms designed to loosen the more stringent regulations in the country's labor market, France's labour minister, Myriam El Khomri, will include a provision that would give employees the right to ignore professional emails and other messages when outside the office. It would essentially codify a division between work and home, and, on a deeper level, between public and private life.

Some believe people who don't make a distinction between home and work arrive at work 'shattered'. Credit:Sharon Dominick

El Khomri apparently fleeced this idea from a report by Bruno Mettling, a director general in charge of human resources at Orange, the telecommunications giant. Mettling believes this policy would benefit employers as much as their employees, whom, he has said, are likely to suffer "psychosocial risks" from a ceaseless communication cycle.

As reported in Le Monde, a recent study found than approximately 3.2 million French workers are at risk of "burning out" defined as a combination of physical exhaustion and emotional anxiety. Although France is already famous for its 35-hour workweek, many firms skirt the rules - often through employees who continue working remotely long after they leave for the day.