Comment by dgan

25 days ago

for one, because that's like requiring a particular brand of a tool to be used. That's even ignoring the "required" because usually I can't require that my hide uses a tool unless I, as employer, provide it to him/her

They can require certain “brands” of tools if it’s deemed necessary for some other requirement of the job. In the case of Copilot it’s because Microsoft’s tools already check all the boxes for their enterprise partner requirements and haven’t bothered to do the leg work to get anyone else in-line. It’s completely arbitrary but it’s most likely all legal.

  • nope, still not buying it. i understand we must live in different jurisdictions, and hère (France) it is explicitly stated that Employer must provide all tools necessary to the work. moreover, the Employee has the explicit right to refuse any request to use his own tools for the job. And finally, any costs for the employee must be reimbursed by the Employer.

    • America is at-will employment and employers can basically make up whatever rules they want. California has some labour laws with regard to hand tools for tradespeople (and maybe other things I’m not familiar with) but pretty much everywhere else it’s Wild West.

      Unless California updated their laws recently either I don’t think coding agents count as “hand tools”.

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