Personally, i've just left jobs that required me to respond to after-work or weekend e-mail, and found a better job.
I have had HR routinely email me between 9 and 11 pm on Sunday nights as a deliberate strategy to make me stressed/uncomfortable with the workplace. Some people are trash and use technology as a weapon.
If you read my comment, one option I gave was simply leaving, which is what I do in this case. After leaving Bain, if a company does this, I quit, and tell HR the reason why. There are no second chances.
After working several jobs I really hated, we've decided to never become beholden to a company again. People pay you money if you do work that helps them. If you get this, then making money is straightforwards enough, and you don't need a whole lot to get by.
The only place where this falls apart is medical costs. However, in my opinion, the fact that you can go bankrupt from medical costs is more an indictment of America's healthcare system and lack of universal health insurance, than it is a valid critique of my philosophy.
Also, based on the fact that you're on HN, I'm going to assume that you're lucky enough to work in a field that currently has a surplus of career options that pay a living wage. For lots of people that's not the case. These types of laws are meant to prevent exploitation of labor in the 21st century where "the workplace" has been completely changed. It's not perfect, it leaves plenty of ways for people to continue to be exploited, but it helps stem the bleeding and pushes the culture a bit in the right way.
Your view of "just go to the job tree and pick a new job" is cute but completely out of touch.
So yes, I agree with you. Thinking this is wizardry instead of a small step in the right direction would be very out of touch with reality.
Firstly, there is little data on how many companies require this sort of employee. My guess is that the few companies that do require it for good reason (would you really be okay with not allowing hospitals to page doctors after hours?). More likely, employees feel pressured when there is little pressure being exerted by the company itself. I've worked in strategy consulting which is well known for how it takes over your life. Most of my colleagues felt a compulsion to respond immediately that I simply never felt. If you listened to how they put it, you'd think God himself were breathing down their neck. This is completely self-imposed. The alternative is to respond when ready and before the deadline, but not feel pressure.
> Your view of "just go to the job tree and pick a new job" is cute but completely out of touch.
If your choice is between not having a job or responding to e-mail, then legislation isn't the way out. If your job requires this kind of attentiveness, and you have no other choices, making it illegal for your company to require this does not make your life better. It simply makes your job go away. We are seeing this right now with the rise of automation due to the increase in minimum wage.
The government needs to focus on giving employees skills so that they too have something to negotiate with. The fact is that an unskilled employee has no bargaining power and is little more than a slave. The government's strategy should be two-fold: (1) invest heavily in making sure every employee has a skill that can be bargained with, and (2) stop subsidizing businesses.