What is the Right to Disconnect?
From 26 August 2024, most employees will have the ‘right to disconnect’ under the Fair Work Act. For employees of businesses with less than 15 employees, this right will apply from 26 August 2025. The Right to Disconnect will not apply if the employee’s refusal is unreasonable.
The Right to Disconnect means that your employees will have the right to refuse to monitor, access, read or respond to contact or attempted contact from you or from another person if the contact is work-related, outside the employee’s ordinary working hours.
The Right to Disconnect will not apply if the employee’s refusal is unreasonable.
Importantly, the Right to Disconnect does not mean you cannot contact your employees outside of their ordinary working hours. However, it does mean you need to have a reasonable basis for any out of hours contact.
From 26 August 2024, modern awards will contain a right to disconnect term. The Fair Work Commission will make written guidelines about how the right to disconnect will operate.
How can small businesses best prepare for these changes?
To prepare for the Right to Disconnect, you will need to review your operations and consider how to the Right to Disconnect may affect your business.
This includes thinking about:
- Do you communicate with your employees outside of their ordinary work hours about work-related matters?
- If so, is that communication reasonable, in the circumstances and do you have appropriate workplace policies in place setting out the expectations in relation to such contact?
- If not, think about how working practices can be changed to ensure out of hours communications only occurs when it is reasonable and consult with employees to discuss expectations of reasonable contact outside of ordinary working hours.
