Right To Disconnect Laws Under Threat: How Could It Affect Australian Workers?

Australians have been warned freshly about the impact of removing the Right to Disconnect laws, which allow workers to ignore work-related messages outside their hours.

New research has shown that scrapping these laws could negatively affect employees' well-being and work-life balance.

What is the Right to Disconnect?

The law, which came into effect on Aug. 26, gave employees in businesses with 15 or more workers the right to refuse contact from their employer or others after work. They do not have to check, read, or respond to work-related messages.

From Aug. 26 this year, these protections will also apply to small businesses, News AU reported.

The new rules allow employees to ignore unreasonable work-related messages, but certain factors must be considered before ignoring a call from their boss. However, if a call, text, or email is deemed "unreasonable," workers now have the right to ignore it.

The Right to Disconnect's effect on employees

The Centre for Future Work's study revealed that unpaid overtime has decreased since the law was introduced last year. On average, unpaid work hours have dropped from 5.4 to 3.6 hours per week, marking a 33% reduction.

A survey comprising over 1,000 employees found that the biggest decrease was among workers aged 18-29, who experienced about a 40% drop in their weekly unpaid work hours.

Without these laws, employees could end up working over a billion extra hours without pay. Before the law was introduced, workers completed around 3.3 billion hours of unpaid work. That number has since dropped to 2.2 billion, according to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).

With the upcoming federal election, there are concerns that the benefits of the Right to Disconnect laws could be taken away. In February 2024, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton promised to remove these laws if the Coalition won the election.

Earlier this week, when Dutton was asked if he would revoke the right to disconnect policy, he said, "Yes we will. We will take the policy that's in the country's best interest that provides support for workers but doesn't make it impossible – particularly for small businesses – to employ staff."

The ACTU has warned that if Dutton follows through on his plan to remove the Right to Disconnect laws, it could have a serious negative impact on workers across Australia.

Removing the law could lead to an increase of more than 100 minutes of unpaid overtime every week for the average worker. The ACTU also criticized the Coalition for opposing the Right to Disconnect, stating that while politicians may be used to being constantly available, most workers deserved a life outside of their jobs.

The next federal election is scheduled for on or before May 17 this year to elect members of the 48th Parliament.