Australia grants workers legal right to disconnect after-hours

Australia gave millions of workers the legal right to "disconnect", allowing them to ignore unreasonable out-of-hours calls, emails and texts from their bosses.

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".

Unions welcomed the legislation on Monday, saying it gave workers a way to reclaim some work-life balance.

"Today is a historic day for working people," said Michele O'Neil, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

"Australian unions have reclaimed the right to knock off after work," she said.

In the streets of Sydney, people appeared to welcome the change.

"I have a very hard time disconnecting and even though I may not necessarily be logged on, my brain is constantly working overtime," not-for-profit worker Karolina Joseski said.

"So getting that after-hour call from my boss doesn't necessarily help."

'Deeply confusing'

But the reform got a cool welcome from Australia's top industry body.

"The 'right to disconnect' laws are rushed, poorly thought out and deeply confusing," the Australian Industry Group said.

"At the very least, employers and employees will now be uncertain about whether they can take or make a call out of hours to offer an extra shift," it said.

The law is similar to those of some European and Latin American countries.

Research indicates that the right to disconnect benefits employees said University of Sydney associate professor Chris Wright.

More than 70 percent of workers in European Union companies with a right to disconnect policy considered its impact to be positive, according to a November 2023 study by the EU work-related agency Eurofound.

Employees are experiencing "availability creep" as smartphones and other digital devices put them within reach of their employers, Wright told AFP.

"Having a measure that restores to some extent the boundary between people's work and non-work lives is a positive thing, certainly for employees but also for employers," he said, particularly in industries trying to lure new workers.