We’ve all experienced it at least once in our lives — that moment when you’re having dinner, hear a notification on your phone and check your phone just to see a work email that you’re required to reply to as soon as possible.
Well, Australians now no longer have to reply to those post-office-hours work emails anymore. A new law allowing employees to refuse to reply to work communications or pick up work calls after office hours has just come into effect in Australia.
Australia’s “Right to Disconnect” Law Comes into Effect
On Monday (26 August), a new law came into effect in Australia which gave employees the right to refuse to respond to work communications after office hours.
The new law, which is more commonly known as the “right to disconnect” law, isn’t new. Many countries around the world, mostly in Europe and Latin America, have similar laws giving employees the “right to disconnect” after office hours — France, Canada, and Italy, are just some of these countries.
And if you’re wondering whether you missed out on the latest updates in Singapore, no, there is no such law in place in Singapore. So, if you have a towkay demanding you to pick up work calls after work hours, too bad, you’ll have to deal with it.
Employees May Refuse to Respond to Work Communications Unless Refusal is Deemed Unreasonable
While the new law in Australia does not mean that employers are now banned from contacting their employees after work hours, it does mean that employees are not obligated to respond to these work communications. Should employees choose to ignore these work communications after work hours, they’re allowed to do so under the “right to disconnect” law.
Of course, however, this is subject to a very important condition lah — the refusal cannot be unreasonable.
Say, for instance, an employer genuinely has an emergency and contacts an employee about it, but the employee refuses to respond — this could potentially be deemed an unreasonable refusal to respond to work communications.
Ultimately, whether a refusal to respond is reasonable is dependent on the circumstances surrounding the work communication and the refusal. The judgment is for Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) to make, taking into account an employee’s position, personal circumstances, as well as how and why the work communication was made.
The FWC also has the power to issue a cease and desist order. If the employee or employer fails to comply with the order, an employee could be fined up to A$19,000 (S$16,802) and a company could be fined up to A$94,000 (S$83,127).
Maybe Australia can take over Singapore’s role as the “fine city” already.
Australians Worked 281 Hours of Unpaid Overtime on Average in 2023
The “right to disconnect” law seems to have come into effect at the perfect time. According to the ADP Research Institute’s “People at Work 2023: A Global Workforce View” report, Australian employees worked an average of 7.17 unpaid hours weekly.
The report also says, ahem… that Singaporeans work about 8.19 unpaid hours weekly…
And it does appear that Australians are rather welcoming of this new “right to disconnect” law. After all, who doesn’t want a better work-life balance?
“Any organisation that has staff who have better rest and who have better work-life balance are going to have staff who are less likely to have sick days, less likely to leave the organisation,” John Hopkins from Swinburne University of Technology said.
On the other hand, a group of Australians have also criticised the new law.
“The laws came literally and figuratively out of left field, were introduced with minimal consultation about their practical effect and have left little time for employers to prepare,” the Australian Industry Group, an employer group, shared.
So, where do you stand on the new “right to disconnect” law in Australia? If it were implemented in Singapore, do you think it would work?
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