Sydney: Australia gave millions of workers the legal right to “disconnect” on Monday (August 26), allowing them to ignore unreasonable out-of-hours contact from employers, to the distress of big industry.
People can now “refuse to monitor, read, or respond to” their employers’ attempts to contact them outside work hours – unless that refusal is deemed “unreasonable”.
Australians can refuse to monitor, read or respond to work communication outside of paid hours unless doing so is unreasonable, when the country’s right-to-disconnect laws come into effect from Monday.
They are meant to ensure employees are paid for every hour they work, instead of the average 5.4 hours a week they currently perform without pay according to the Australia Institute.
The laws have sparked fierce political debate from unions, business groups and other advocates, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton vowing to overturn them if elected.
The right to disconnect doesn’t apply to emergencies, and working out what’s reasonable includes the reason for making contact, how disruptive it is, the nature of someone’s job and their personal circumstances including caring responsibilities.
The provision allows for a certain amount of wriggle room as ‘reasonable’ is a broad concept, according to Dr Sandra Martain from Curtin University.
She said managers, and workers who are paid on-call allowances, overtime or by-the-hour won’t feel any changes.
“What it’s saying is workplace cultures have developed that seem to expect people will work perhaps unlimited hours in some situations and that that has to be pulled back in,” she said.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil hopes the laws will stop employers being “disorganised” and relying on technology to contact workers at short notice about shift changes or changing deadlines.
She said workers in unpredictable industries like firefighting or those with flexible work including parents who split shifts won’t experience any changes.
“Being contacted out of hours, being asked to do things when you’re not working or on leave shouldn’t be a way of getting unpaid work out of people” she said.
Mental health-related workers’ compensation claims have risen more than a third since 2017-18 and Ms O’Neil hopes better work-life balance will benefit individuals and boost productivity.
“If we can get this right it will actually mean workers are healthier and you have less work-related health issues,” she said.
The right to disconnect is part of the government’s Closing Loopholes reforms, which updates the definition of a casual employee and sets out minimum work standards for gig economy workers.
The law doesn’t ban bosses reaching out to workers, apply to high income earners or affect workplaces with fewer than 15 people for another year.
