Australia gave millions of workers the legal right to “disconnect” on Monday, allowing them to ignore unreasonable out-of-hours contact from employers, causing major industry distress.
People can now “refuse to monitor, read or respond” to employers’ attempts to contact them outside of working hours – unless such refusal is deemed “unreasonable”.
The law is similar to the laws of some European and Latin American countries.
Trade unions welcomed the legislation, saying it gave workers a way to restore work-life balance.
“Today is a historic day for workers,” said Michelle O’Neill, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
“The union movement has won the legal right for Australians to spend quality time with their loved ones without having to constantly answer unreasonable work calls and emails,” she said.
“Australian unions have regained their right to leave after work.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has praised the reforms introduced by his centre-left Labour government.
“We want to make sure that just as people don’t get paid 24 hours a day, they don’t have to work 24 hours a day,” he told ABC National.
“It’s also a mental health issue, frankly, for people to be able to disconnect from their work and connect with their families and their lives.”
“very confusing”
But the reforms have been warmly received by Australian industry leaders.
“The ‘right to disconnect’ laws are hasty, ill-considered and extremely confusing,” the Australian industry group said in a statement.
“At the very least, employers and employees will now be uncertain about whether they can accept or make an out-of-hours call to offer an extra shift,” the statement said.
The law, which was issued last February, came into effect for medium and large companies as of Monday.
Small businesses with fewer than 15 employees will be covered starting August 26, 2025.
“We encourage workplace participants to educate themselves about the right to disconnect and take a sound approach to implementing it in their workplace,” said Fair Work Secretary Anna Booth, chair of Australia’s workplace relations regulator.
Under the law, a court may order workers to stop unreasonably refusing to contact outside of work hours, and employers may similarly be ordered to stop unreasonably forcing employees to respond, the law states.
The Fair Work Ombudsman said in a statement that the question of what is reasonable “will depend on the circumstances”.
Critical factors may include the reason for the call, the nature of the employee’s role, and compensation for working overtime or being present, she said.
In 2017, France passed the right to disconnect, hoping to address the “always-on” culture facilitated by smartphones and other digital devices.
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