Your New Right to Disconnect – What is it?
Big changes have come and are coming to the workplace, giving employees a new right to truly clock out and disconnect after their regular working hours.
These changes took effect on:
- August 26, 2024, for non-small business employers*
- August 26, 2025, for small business employers
* A non-small business employer is defined as one with 15 or more employees at any given time.
What Exactly is the Right to Disconnect?
This new right ensures that employees of larger businesses can unwind after hours without the obligation to monitor, read, or respond to any work-related messages or calls—unless it is unreasonable to do so. This protection covers contact from both employers and third parties, helping to safeguard the employee’s personal time.
What Counts as Unreasonable Refusal?
When determining whether an employee’s refusal to engage after hours is unreasonable, several key factors come into play:
- Purpose of the contact: the matter is not urgent and can be delayed.
- Disruption level: how making contact affects the employee and disrupts their personal time.
- Compensation: how much the employer pays or compensates the employee for:
- being on-call during off-hours, or
- working extra hours beyond their regular schedule.
- Role and responsibility: the employee’s position and level of responsibility within the business.
- Personal circumstances: the employee’s personal situation, including family or caregiving responsibilities.
Other factors may also influence the situation, but if the law requires the contact, the employee generally cannot reasonably refuse to respond.
How can you avoid Disagreements on What’s ‘Reasonable’?
Disagreements regarding unreasonable contact can be minimised by updating the company’s internal policies, procedures, and relevant documents to clearly define expectations for communication outside of regular working hours. Pay and conditions may also be revised to account for any required out-of-hours contact, ensuring that these adjustments are fully documented and communicated to staff. The business should regularly schedule a review and update of these documents.
If there is still a disagreement over an employee’s right to disconnect, it’s best to address it at the workplace level. Open discussions can often lead to a resolution. However, if that doesn’t work, either the employee or the employer may seek the Fair Work Commission’s assistance.
Key takeaways
- The right to disconnect offers employees protection for their personal time.
- Effective communication is key to resolving disputes over reasonable contact.
- The Fair Work Commission is there to help if workplace discussions don’t lead to a resolution.
Gladwin Legal are experts in Employment Law and have extensive experience in advising businesses. If you require assistance in understanding your legal obligations please contact us at or 1300 033 934.