Australians get the ‘right to disconnect’ after hours
Australia has introduced a “right to disconnect” law, providing relief to workers who feel pressured to respond to work-related calls or messages outside of their regular working hours.
This new law allows employees to ignore after-hours communication from employers without fear of retribution, as long as their refusal to respond is not considered unreasonable.
A survey from last year revealed that Australians, on average, worked 281 hours of unpaid overtime annually.
Similar regulations exist in over 20 countries, mostly in Europe and Latin America.
The law does not prohibit employers from contacting their staff after hours. Instead, it grants employees the right to not respond unless their refusal is deemed unreasonable.
The rules encourage employers and employees to resolve disputes directly. If this is unsuccessful, Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) may intervene, potentially ordering the employer to stop after-hours contact or requiring the employee to respond if their refusal is found to be unreasonable.
Non-compliance with FWC orders could lead to fines of up to A$19,000 ($12,897; £9,762) for an employee or A$94,000 for a company.
Organisations representing workers have welcomed the move.
It “will empower workers to refuse unreasonable out-of-hours work contact and enabling greater work-life balance”, The Australian Council of Trade Unions said.
A workplace expert told BBC News that the new rules would also help employers.
“Any organisation that has staff who have better rest and who have better work-life-balance are going to have staff who are less likely to have sick days, less likely to leave the organisation”, said John Hopkins from Swinburne University of Technology.
“Anything that benefits the employee, has benefits for the employer as well.”
However, there was a mixed reaction to the new law from employees.
“I think it’s actually really important that we have laws like this,” advertising industry worker, Rachel Abdelnour, told Reuters.
“We spend so much of our time connected to our phones, connected to our emails all day, and I think that it’s really hard to switch off as it is.”
Others, however, do not feel the new rules will make much of a difference to them.
“I think it’s an excellent idea. I hope it catches on. I doubt it’ll catch on in our industry, to tell the truth though,” David Brennan, a worker in the financial industry, told the news agency.
“We’re well paid, we’re expected to deliver, and we feel we have to deliver 24 hours a day.”
