Australia is the latest country to give workers the 'right to disconnect' after hours
The law doesn’t strictly prohibit employers from calling or messaging their workers after hours. But it does protect employees who “refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working hours, unless their refusal is unreasonable,” according to the Fair Work Commission, Australia’s workplace relations tribunal.
That includes outreach from their employer, as well as other people “if the contact or attempted contact is work-related.”
“If it was an emergency situation, of course people would expect an employee to respond to something like that,” Watt said. “But if it’s a run-of-the-mill thing … then they should wait till the next work day, so that people can actually enjoy their private lives, enjoy time with their family and their friends, play sport or whatever they want to do after hours, without feeling like they’re chained to the desk at a time when they’re not actually being paid, because that’s just not fair.”
The Australian Council of Trade Unions hailed the new law as a “cost-of-living win for working people,” especially those in industries like teaching, community services and administrative work.
The right to disconnect, it said, will not only cut down on Australians’ unpaid work hours but also address the “growing crisis of increasing mental health illness and injuries in modern workplaces.”
