Senate Labor June 2026: banning off-hours work communication

Ever hear of being on call?

Do Michigan lawyers lack for billable hours?

Is LEO having trouble spending its enormous budget?

Prohibiting work-related communication requirements during off-hours begs these questions, and more.

Thursday, June 18, 2026      12:00 noon

AGENDA

SB 948
Sen. Geiss
Labor: fair employment practices; requirement for an employee to access or respond to work-related communications outside of usual work hours; prohibit.

Testimony regarding the Healthcare Workforce

And any other business properly before the committee.

Senate Fiscal Agency: looks like they did exempt paid on-call from the ban. The lawyer question remains.

https://legislature.mi.gov/documents/2025-2026/billanalysis/Senate/pdf/2026-SFA-0948-G.pdf

The bill would enact the "Workplace Employee Boundaries Act" to do the following:

-- Prohibit an employer from requiring an employee to access or respond to work
related communications that concerned an employee's employment or
employment duties outside of the employee's usual work hours.
-- Allow an employee to establish after-hours availability and require an employee
that did so to notify that individual's employer of those hours.
-- Prohibit an employer from retaliating against an employee who did not reply to
after-hours communication or had an auto-reply that the employee was not
available.
-- Require the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) to receive and
investigate complaints regarding violations of the Act.
-- Allow LEO to impose a fine of up to $500 for a violation of the Act and specify
that the prosecutor of the county in which a violation of the Act occurred or the
Attorney General (AG) could bring an action to collect the fine.
-- Allow LEO to require an employer found in violation of the Act to compensate an
employee who had to respond to after-hours communication.
-- Require LEO to develop or adopt professional development training on workplace
boundaries and allow LEO to require an employer who violated the Act to
complete the training.