How Employers Can Adapt to Australia’s New Right to Disconnect Laws

Australia's new right to disconnect laws commence from August 26, 2024. Let's explore what these new employee rights mean and how Australian employers should adapt. 

Switching off from work can be hard. These days, people are constantly connected through their digital devices, making it easy for employers to reach them. As a result, many people struggle to unwind outside of work hours. Alerts, emails, texts, and phone calls can make employees think about work when they are not on the job. 

That’s why the Australian Fair Work Act now gives employees the formal right to disconnect from all work communication when they are not working. 

As of August 26, 2024, employees have the right to refuse contact outside of their working hours. This means that they can refuse to monitor, read, or respond to contact from an employer or third party, unless that refusal is unreasonable. 

France was the first country to give workers rights to ignore after-hours communication in 2017 and other countries have gradually been introducing laws that protect the right to undisrupted recovery time. 

What does the right to disconnect legislation mean for Australian employers?  

If you employ on-call, casual, or temporary workers, you might be wondering how you will communicate ad-hoc or last-minute shift updates to your team. This could be an issue if you work in industries like events, hospitality, or labour hire where shift changes can happen regularly.  

However, before you start worrying about how you will communicate with staff about rosters and shifts, it’s important to know that the new law focuses on an employee’s right to refuse contact outside of work hours.  

It gives employees more power when it comes to negotiating their out-of-hours communications with an employer. However, it doesn’t restrict employers from contacting their employees when they wish. An employer would only have an obligation if an employee applied to the Fair Work Commission and made an order preventing contact outside of hours. 

What might be an unreasonable refusal for an employee? 

There is no fixed definition of an unreasonable employee refusal as this would vary by industry and occupation. However, several factors can be considered according to Fair Work. These include:  

• The reason for the contact. 
• Whether the employee is compensated or paid extra for being available to be contacted to perform work within a specific period, or working additional hours outside their ordinary hours of work.  
• The nature of the employee’s role and level of responsibility.  
• The employee’s personal circumstances, such as family or caring responsibilities. 

How are right to disconnect disputes dealt with? 

Let’s imagine that an employee exercises their right to disconnect. If they refuse to monitor, read, or respond to contact from their employer, the dispute can first be discussed and resolved within the workplace.  

If a resolution can’t be made, employees or employers can go to the Fair Work Commission for help in dealing with the dispute. At this point, the Commission could make a stop order, hold a conference to try and resolve the dispute, or both of the above. 

When does the right to disconnect start?

The new laws start on the 26th of August 2024 for non-small business employers with 15 or more employees. Small business employers with less than 15 employees have some more time up their sleeves, with the new laws commencing for them on the 26th of August 2025. 

All awards have also been required to include a ‘right to disconnect’ term by the 26th of August 2024. These specific rules give employers and employees more context as to how the new right will apply to their industries and occupations. 

How employers can adapt to the right to disconnect laws 

The right to disconnect laws have been created to help protect the health and wellbeing of workers in a connected, digital world. Many people are easy to contact outside of hours and this can easily result in the number of unpaid work hours creeping upwards, making work-life balance harder to achieve.  

So, when you’re adapting to these new requirements, think about how you can streamline your communications and make life easier for your employees. 

You might like to seek out HR or IR advice as you review your policies and educate your team about the changes. We expect that many businesses will start taking steps, such as: 

• Checking if employees are remunerated with an expectation to be contactable outside of hours. 
• Reviewing employment contracts and position descriptions, paying attention to clauses related to salary, remuneration, and duties. 
• Checking if policies and procedures cover contact outside of normal working hours. 
• Educating managers on the changes and how to handle refusals. 
• Providing training and information to employees about the changes. 

You can also use a workforce management platform to minimise and streamline any outside of hours communication.  

For example, foundU’s online rosters can make upcoming shifts and schedule information easily accessible. Managers can convey important information about schedules online, equipping your employees with the knowledge they need to succeed on their upcoming shifts at a time that suits them. The employee self-service app also helps employees check out upcoming shifts, availability updates, payslips, leave requests, training, and company announcements any time they like. 

You can also use foundU to ensure optimal coverage and operational continuity with real-time visibility into staff availability, leave status, and cross-roster schedules. This streamlines scheduling, ensures you’re resourced, and makes shift allocation more efficient – minimising the need for last-minute, out of hours contact. If a shift does need to be filled at the last minute, you can also dynamically offer shifts to employees via SMS or email in a low-touch way. You can even restrict sending hours so that messages are sent in an agreed time window.

Digital time and attendance tracking technology also makes it easier for employees to clock in and out of shifts at various locations. This can reduce the need to communicate with remote or field-based teams about their shifts. 

Creating boundaries between work and rest 

The right to disconnect encourages employers and employees to set boundaries between work and rest.  It may impact on your operations and workforce management procedures, so we encourage you to review your policies, seek out the necessary HR and IR advice, facilitate any required training within your team, and lean on technology to streamline communication with your employees.