Australia's workforce has gained the legal right to disconnect from work-related communications outside of their official hours starting August 26. This new law, which was passed in February, protects employees who choose not to monitor, read, or respond to messages from their employers during their personal time.
Many countries in Europe, Asia, North America and South America have already established laws or regulations limiting employers contacting workers outside work hours.
What Is Right To Disconnect Law?
Australian workers have the right to disconnect from their workplaces once they log off for the day. This law is to empower workers to ignore work calls and emails after hours from their employers where those demands are unreasonable. This also means an employee can refuse to monitor, read or respond to contacts from an employer or a third party such as a client, Reuters reported.
The primary objective of this law is to address the growing issue of work-life imbalance, particularly in the age of technology. With the increasing availability of smartphones and other devices, employees are often expected to be accessible around the clock, leading to stress, burnout, and compromised personal time especially after COVID-19 where office and work timings have been blurred for work from home employees.
What Are The Penalties?
Australia's industrial umpire, the Fair Work Commission (FWC), will decide whether a refusal is unreasonable or not. Factors like the employee's role, the reason for the contact and how it is made will be considered for the same.
If an employer "unreasonably" expects employees to perform unpaid work outside of normal hours, the commission may be empowered to impose a "stop order" — and potentially fines — to prevent the employer from contacting employees outside hours.
Can Employers Still Call?
In February, Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke indicated the right to disconnect legislation will provide employers with "reasonable grounds" to contact their employees outside work hours. This might include calling employees to see if they can fill a shift.
If enterprise agreements with existing right to disconnect clauses are an indication, the Fair Work Commission will probably be asked to determine what contact outside of work hours is deemed "reasonable". This approach seems sensible given the long tradition of the commission being asked to rule on what's "reasonable" in other areas of employment law.
In February, there were at least 56 enterprise agreements operating in Australia providing a right to disconnect option. This included agreements covering teachers, police officers and various banks and financial institutions.
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