(Re)Defining Workspace: Dissolving Boundaries and Application of Labour Legislation

Please note that this webinar will take place in French.

Technological developments have made the workspace increasingly volatile, mobile and virtual, to the point where it is sometimes no longer possible to distinguish whether a given space is personal or professional. Remote work and teleworking, flex office arrangements, hyperconnectivity, the promotion of autonomy, the rise of digital platforms, and the growing role of informal caregivers all contribute to work permeating every sphere of life. Any place, including the most private, may now potentially constitute a space for professional activity: rooms within the home (including the garden), waiting rooms, public transport, and places of leisure and social interaction (cafés, campsites, holiday resorts, playgrounds, etc.).

The traditional framework of the workspace is being called into question, as is the Fordist model based on the unity of time, place and action. Faced with these developments, one of the central legal questions is how to define the space within which labour law applies, much as working time has long attracted the greatest attention from both law and the social sciences.