A warning - France's new laws on work emails would be a failure here.

LISTEN ABOVE: Employment expert Max Whitehead spoke to Tim Dower about how the idea would work here

As of January the 1st, French workers can ignore their office emails, when at home.

Employment expert Max Whitehead told Tim Dower New Zealand is known for it's small businesses.

He said this law would be a huge pain for them.

"If it applied to them it just wouldn't work, it just couldn't work. They would have to go out of business.

"Most of these small mums and dads who run businesses actually have to do the work out of hours, and they sometimes actually delegate that to some of their employees."