Australia enforces ‘right to disconnect’ law for employees from emails, calls after work hours…

Australian employees have the option of ignoring their boss or office superiors if they reach out after office hours. This has happened after a “right to disconnect” law has been passed aimed to protect employees from the intrusion of work related emails, texts, and calls into an employees’ personal life.

The law has come into effect today, Monday 26th August 2024 ensuring that the employee cannot be penalised for not responding to work related communications after office hours except in reasonable emergency cases like security issues, alarming situations etc.

However the employees can refuse to answer or attend the work if he or she wishes to if it is reasonable to do so.

The fair work commission (FWC), Australia’s industrial regulatory authority will determine the reasonableness of a refusal in case an employee refuses to attend the work after office hours considering the personal circumstances and why the contact was made. The FWC in this regard has the authority to issue and desist orders and impose fines of up to $19000 for an employee and up to $94000 for a company.

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Due to the introduction of digital technology, the lines between work and personal life have blurred often leading to stress, as extra work pressure stretches too long into after office hours reducing employees’ much needed family and personal time.

The institute estimated that Australian nationals worked an unpaid 281 overtime hours in the last year amounting to a salary worth of Australian $130 billion that if transferred to USD amounts to a whooping $88 billion.