From Monday, employees in Australia will have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to work communication outside their paid hours under laws passed by parliament in February.
A report published by the independent think tank the Australia Institute in 2023 found that Australian workers do an average of 5.4 hours per week of unpaid work, equating to 131 billion Australian dollars (88.9 billion U.S. dollars) worth of unpaid work across the country every year.
Workers aged 18-29 do the most unpaid work, the report found, at 7.4 hours per week on average.
Murray Watt, the minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, said on Sunday that the right to disconnect ensures that the law keeps up with technology.
"What's not acceptable is for people to be taking constant calls or constant emails with an expectation that they're going to be monitoring and responding, when they're not getting paid to do it," he told reporters.
However, the right to disconnect does not apply to emergencies and the new laws have exceptions for cases where an employee's refusal to be contacted is considered unreasonable, depending on their role, the reason for the contact, how contact is made and other factors.
The legislation drew criticism from business groups as it moved through parliament and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) on Monday said it risks holding Australia's historically low productivity back even further.
"These laws put Australia's competitiveness at risk by adding more cost and complexity to the challenge of doing business, and that means less investment and fewer job opportunities," BCA chief executive Bran Black said in a statement.
The new laws apply to workers at companies with more than 15 employees from Monday and will take effect for those at small businesses from August 22, 2025.
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