No penalties for refusing office calls or messages after hours: What is Australia’s ‘right to disconnect’?

In 2022, Belgium’s Public Administration Minister Petra De Sutter told the BBC that the pandemic further blurred the distinction between work and home life. “The result will be stress and burnout and this is the real disease of today,” she said.

Have other countries, or India, experimented with ‘right to disconnect’ laws?

France was the first country to introduce a ‘right to disconnect’ in 2017. “Employees are more and more connected during hours outside of the office,” Myriam El Khomri, then France’s Minister of Labour, said on the need for such a law.

According to a BBC report, it required that companies with more than 50 workers were obliged to draw up a charter of good conduct, setting out the hours when staff are not supposed to send or answer emails.

In India, Baramati MP Supriya Sule drafted a Private Member’s Bill for such a right, through the Right to Disconnect Bill of 2018, which was never taken up for discussion in the House.

It proposed that every registered company and society shall constitute Employees’ Welfare Committees consisting of its employees to assist employees in the negotiation of terms and conditions of out-of-work hours with employers.

Sireesha Vinnakota, a consultant who worked with Sule to draft the Bill as part of her team, said the draft was inspired by existing provisions globally: “In Germany, there was no formal legislation in place at the time, but the private automobile manufacturing companies (such as Volkswagen) were imposing such policies.” For instance, company servers paused emails and other communications from reaching employees after-hours.

The draft Bill also mentions a penalty “at the rate of one per cent of total employees’ remuneration” to be paid by companies for noncompliance with its provisions. If an employee works beyond work hours, they will be entitled to overtime wages. “Without holding a person accountable, you can’t expect things to be implemented,” Vinnakota said.

However, one line of criticism says that employees who point out the need to disconnect from work might be passed over for promotions and crucial tasks. Vinnakota says these arguments were also advanced in debates over menstrual leaves and maternity leaves. The possible exclusion of women workers from the workforce was anticipated for availing of such policies.

“I think the best solution lies in the method of implementation of the right to disconnect in a particular workplace. Say an aggrieved employee has to fight his case, alleging they are being overlooked not because of their inefficiency but because they asked for this right. If they have to appeal this decision, there should be mechanisms existing to independently review employees’ performance. This allows for them to have proof of performance, perhaps. So, I don’t think it’s impossible,” she added.

What is Australia’s ‘right to disconnect’?

According to the Australian government’s Fair Work Ombudsman, it means, “Employees will have the right to refuse contact outside their working hours unless that refusal is unreasonable. This means an employee can refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from an employer or a third party.”

What does “unreasonable” mean here? Tony Burke, Australia’s Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, earlier said that it was understood bosses may have to contact employees even after work hours, at times.

“But if you’re in a job where you’re only paid for the exact hours that you’re working, some people are now constantly in a situation of getting in trouble if they’re not checking their emails, it is expected to be working for a whole lot of time that they’re not being paid. That’s just unreasonable,” he said.

For companies having more than 15 employees, the right came into effect on Monday. For smaller firms, it will be applicable from August 26, 2025. It is part of other changes introduced to industrial relations laws, through the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill, 2023.

Factors like the extent to which the employee is compensated for overtime work, the reason for the contact or attempted contact, and the level of disruption it causes to the employee will all be considered to judge whether the contact was reasonable.

In case an employee-employer dispute over such contact happens, they must first attempt to resolve it at the workplace through discussions between the parties. If that attempt fails, they may move to the Fair Work Commission, the country’s industrial relations tribunal. Refusing to follow an FWC order could mean potential fines for the employer.

What is the criticism of ‘right to disconnect’?

Australia’s Chambers of Commerce criticised the provision when the Bill passed the Senate in 2024. It said in a statement: “We cannot allow industrial relations laws to make it harder for hard-working business owners to generate the wealth we enjoy as a nation.”

Andrew McKellar, chief executive officer of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told The Guardian that the amendment could impact women’s participation in the workforce.

“This sort of heavy-handed legislation risks taking Australia back to a rigid working environment that is undesirable for parents, especially women,” McKellar said, adding “This rigidity also undermines the case for working from home, which appeals to many employees with family responsibilities.”

Others called it confusing, muddling the norms on what kind of work-related messages are acceptable. Anna Booth, head of Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman, said, “We encourage workplace participants to educate themselves on the right to disconnect and take a commonsense approach to applying it within their workplace.”

An article in The Conversation on the subject offered an alternative view, moving away from having all hours strictly accounted for. It said the right to disconnect can be the “catalyst” for better policies on work-life balance. More broadly, a “cultural shift that destigmatizes a less frenetic pace of work and allows employees more control over their work boundaries will more directly address the problem of overwork,” it added.

This is an updated version of an explainer first published in February 2024.