CANBERRA - Australia's right-to-disconnect laws have come into effect, granting workers the entitlement to refuse contact outside of their working hours.
From Monday, employees in Australia will have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to work communication outside their paid hours under laws passed by parliament in February.
A report published by the independent think tank the Australia Institute in 2023 found that Australian workers do an average of 5.4 hours per week of unpaid work, equating to 131 billion Australian dollars ($88.9 billion) worth of unpaid work across the country every year.
Workers aged 18-29 do the most unpaid work, the report found, at 7.4 hours per week on average.
Murray Watt, the minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, said on Sunday that the right to disconnect ensures that the law keeps up with technology.
"What's not acceptable is for people to be taking constant calls or constant emails with an expectation that they're going to be monitoring and responding, when they're not getting paid to do it," he told reporters.
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However, the right to disconnect does not apply to emergencies and the new laws have exceptions for cases where an employee's refusal to be contacted is considered unreasonable, depending on their role, the reason for the contact, how contact is made and other factors.
The legislation drew criticism from business groups as it moved through parliament and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) on Monday said it risks holding Australia's historically low productivity back even further.
"These laws put Australia's competitiveness at risk by adding more cost and complexity to the challenge of doing business, and that means less investment and fewer job opportunities," BCA chief executive Bran Black said in a statement.
Determining whether a refusal is reasonable will be up to Australia's industrial umpire, the Fair Work Commission (FWC), which must take into account an employee's role, personal circumstances and how and why the contact was made.
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It has the power to issue a cease and desist order and, failing that, levy fines of up A$19,000 for an employee or up to A$94,000 for a company.
But the Australian Industry Group, an employer group, says ambiguity about how the rule applies will create confusion for bosses and workers. Jobs will become less flexible and in doing so slow the economy, it added.
The changes add Australia to a group of roughly two dozen countries, mostly in Europe and Latin America, which have similar laws. The new laws will take effect for those at small businesses from August 22, 2025.
Pioneer France introduced the rules in 2017 and a year later fined pest control firm Rentokil Initial 60,000 euros ($66,700) for requiring an employee to always have his phone on.
With Reuters inputs
