Modern electronic gadgets are partly to be blamed for the disruption it causes on the work-life balance of Australians. The other half of the blame belongs to employers who use these devices to reach their workers even while at home.

The foray of smartphones, tablets computers and other gizmos into the personal time of Aussies resulted in workers performing more than two billion hours of unpaid overtime worth $72 billion, Australian Confederation of Trade Unions (ACTU) President Ged Kearney disclosed on Wednesday.

She made the revelation in time for the yearly Go Home on Time Day marked every Nov. 30 in Australia. The day should be a reminder for workplaces to stop and for people's lives not to revolve around their jobs alone.

Ms Kearney cited a study by The Australia Institute which found that 50 per cent of Aussie workers do not spend as much time with their families as they would like because of the intrusion of work, facilitated by the high-tech gadgets.

Of 11.4 million workers in Australia, 6.8 million have jobs that eat into their free time in any given week; only 1.75 million employees enjoy regular time free from intrusion by their bosses.

A previous ACTU census of 42,000 people discovered that 41 per cent of workers were contacted outside of work hours at least once a week by their employers. Three out of five toiled additional hours weekly, but half of them were not paid overtime wages for their extra hours.

Although some workers agree to give up their free time or to being on call in exchange for higher paychecks, more of those who have to work during evenings or weekends are forced by their financial circumstances to do so, especially those in casual type of employment.

"We often hear the world 'flexibility' banded around by employers when it comes to justifying invading their workers' personal time via technology, but all too often the benefits of such flexibility stop with the bosses, while employees miss out," Ms Kearney pointed out.

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