Right to Disconnect

From 26 August, 2024 employees of large businesses, that is, those businesses with 15 or more employees, will have the right to disconnect from work-related communications outside their normal working hours. The right to disconnect for small businesses, that is those with fewer than 15 employees, commences on 26 August, 2025 and has the same provisions.

The right to disconnect is subject to a reasonableness test, that is, there will be occasions when the employee will still need to be contactable via appropriate means, be it telephone, email or SMS.

The legislation does not state that the employer cannot contact employees out of hours, it just gives the employee the right not to monitor or respond to any contact after hours, unless the refusal is unreasonable.

What is reasonable will depend upon,

1.      How contact is made,

2.      The nature of the contact,

3.      The employee’s role, and

4.      The employee’s other responsibilities, for example family.

Businesses need to communicate with staff and work out what out of hours contact is reasonable. Employees need to be advised of the type of contact they can expect and why.

Businesses can advise employees that a manager may send an email or text when it is convenient for the manager to do so, but that doesn’t mean the employee has to respond.

Businesses need to ask the question –

Why is there a need to contact someone out of hours? This may be because of an emergency, and may include,

•      Irrigator broken down

•      Livestock have escaped

•      Change to roster or starting time

•      Information essential to the next day at work.

For employers, they should start looking at establishing clear policies and practices to respect employees' right to disconnect while ensuring business operations remain efficient and compliant. Proactive communication and training programs will be essential to navigate this change smoothly. It will also be necessary to look at employment contracts to agree in advance as to what is reasonable out of hours contact for the position or even if there will be some form of remuneration for such.