New rule empowers workers: it’s OK to ignore your boss after hours

Updated on: August 26, 2024 8:36 AM

• Niamh Ancell Journalist

Australians are now granted “the right to disconnect” once they leave the office. This means that outside of working hours, employees can choose to ignore their employers.

The Australian Fair Work Commission (FWC) has enforced a new rule from the Fair Work Act of 2009, which states that employees will no longer need to monitor, read, or respond to contact from their employers or other people within their workplace.

This applies to those working in the national system anywhere in Australia in a constitutional corporation, such as a financial or trading institution formed in Australia and a foreign corporation that does business in the country.

The new rule applies to the private sector in New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia.

If you work in the state of Victoria the rule also applies to you, unless you’re a law enforcement officer or an executive in the public sector.

In Tasmania, workers also have the right to disconnect unless they work for the local government or the private sector.

The rule also applies to certain territories, including the Northern Territory (except for the police force), Norfolk Island, the Territory of Christmas Island, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

Small businesses will eventually be granted the right to disconnect after hours, but this will only come into effect in 2025.

Although the rule does say that workers can now ignore contact from their employers outside of working hours, there are caveats.

An employee can’t disconnect from work-based communications if contact is required by law.

“An employee’s refusal to monitor, read, or respond to contact or attempted contact (disconnection) will be unreasonable if the contact or attempted contact is required by law,” the FWC said.

If the contact is not required by law, other factors should be taken into account to decide whether the employee's disconnection is unreasonable.

These include but aren’t limited to:

According to the BBC, the FWC can order employers to stop contacting their employees outside of working hours and, by the same token, order employees to reply to employers if their disconnection is deemed unreasonable.

If employers and employees fail to comply with the FWC’s orders, they could face a fine.

This could cost employees AUD$19,000 (almost $13,000) and the company AUD$94,000 (nearly $64,000).

The rule will go into effect on August 26th, 2024, for employees who don’t work for small businesses.