Australians get 'right to disconnect' after working hours

[elsiegee40]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y32g7203vo

A "right to disconnect" rule has come into effect in Australia, offering relief to people who feel forced to take calls or read messages from employers after they finish their day’s work.

 

The new law allows employees to ignore communications after hours if they choose to, without fear of being punished by their bosses.

 

A survey published last year estimated that Australians worked on average 281 hours of unpaid overtime annually.

 

More than 20 countries, mainly in Europe and Latin America, have similar rules.

 

The law does not ban employers from contacting workers after hours.

 

Instead, it gives staff the right not to reply unless their refusal is deemed unreasonable.

 

Under the rules, employers and employees should try to resolve disputes among themselves. If that is unsuccessful in finding a resolution Australia's Fair Work Commission (FWC) can step in.

The FWC can then order the employer to stop contacting the employee after hours.

 

If it finds an employee's refusal to respond is unreasonable it can order them to reply.

 

Failure to comply with FWC orders can result in fines of up to A$19,000 ($12,897; £9,762) for an employee or up to A$94,000 for a company.

 

Organisations representing workers have welcomed the move.

It "will empower workers to refuse unreasonable out-of-hours work contact and enabling greater work-life balance", The Australian Council of Trade Unions said.

 

A workplace expert told BBC News that the new rules would also help employers.

 

"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", said John Hopkins from Swinburne University of Technology.

"Anything that benefits the employee, has benefits for the employer as well."

 

However, there was a mixed reaction to the new law from employees.

 

"I think it's actually really important that we have laws like this," advertising industry worker, Rachel Abdelnour, told Reuters.

 

"We spend so much of our time connected to our phones, connected to our emails all day, and I think that it's really hard to switch off as it is."

 

Others, however, do not feel the new rules will make much of a difference to them.

 

"I think it's an excellent idea. I hope it catches on. I doubt it'll catch on in our industry, to tell the truth though," David Brennan, a worker in the financial industry, told the news agency.

 

"We're well paid, we're expected to deliver, and we feel we have to deliver 24 hours a day."

[sigma]

"Back in the day", I was rostered to respond a radiopager out of hours. I was paid for carrying it, paid more if I was called, and paid for any out of hours worked as a result - time x 1.25 for of hours during the week, time x 1.5 on a Saturday and time x 2 on a Sunday or Bank Holiday. This was in the late '80's before email and mobile phones were widely adopted and available at home, and home internet access was dial-up and slow, if available at all.

[elsiegee40]

"Back in the day", I was rostered to respond a radiopager out of hours. I was paid for carrying it, paid more if I was called, and paid for any out of hours worked as a result - time x 1.25 for of hours during the week, time x 1.5 on a Saturday and time x 2 on a Sunday or Bank Holiday. This was in the late '80's before email and mobile phones were widely adopted and available at home, and home internet access was dial-up and slow, if available at all.

 

Same for me. Always a pain when the pager’s low battery bleep happened in the middle of the night when you weren’t on call

 

Trying to diagnose and fix an issue over the phone talking to the operators who were unfailingly over-cheerful having woken me up at 2am… and then, if I had no choice, the drive to the office in one of the roughest parts of the Medway towns where the security guards would walk out to the car to escort me into the building just in case.

[penfold]

I had the same, but as I understand it, this is paid time for being "on call" and being "active". This is not the same as being expected to answer emails/messages etc because you have been contacted after hours. I work in a global company which has offices across all time zones. We get plenty of emails out of hours which I do not reply to. However, that is not to say that there has not been an expectancy to provide some response outside of normal working hours. I have worked with people who did not care if it was beyond your working hours because "it needs to be done". What I found more frustrating is the expectations of responding to mail/messages, but very rarely getting a call because it was important. This then leads to a slippery slope where people expect you to monitor emails out of hours "just in case".

[TechMonkey]

A long time ago I stole the wording of an email footer from someone on here that resonated with me and I have had good feedback about it from various colleagues. I'm thinking of making it a header so more prominent.

It goes:

"If this email is sent before 8:00am, after 5:00pm or at the weekend this is because it fits with my schedule. It does not imply any expectation that you respond outside your working hours."

[FN-GM]

I live in Australia and I didn’t know about this until a few hours ago, via the BBC. I haven’t heard a single person talk about it nor have I seen it on the news.

 

I genuinely don’t understand how this has gone under the radar.

[PotNoodleTech]

1. If I aint getting paid to be on call then it can wait till 8am next working day.

 

2. If you need it completed then put those essential staff on call.

 

3. See 1