On Monday, millions of workers in Australia were granted the legal right to “switch off,” allowing them to ignore inappropriate contact from employers outside of working hours – to the chagrin of big industry.
Employees can now refuse to monitor, read or respond to their employers’ attempts to contact them outside of working hours – unless the refusal is deemed “unreasonable”.
The laws are similar to those of some European and Latin American countries.
Unions welcomed the legislation, saying it offered workers a way to regain a balance between work and private life.
“Today is a historic day for working people,” said Michele O’Neil, president of the Australian Federation of Trade Unions.
“The trade union movement has ensured that Australians have the legal right to spend quality time with their loved ones without the stress of constantly having to answer inappropriate work calls and emails,” she said.
“Australian unions have reclaimed the right to get home after work.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the reforms implemented by his centre-left Labor government.
“We want to make sure that people don’t have to work 24 hours a day, just as they don’t get paid 24 hours a day,” he told national broadcaster ABC.
“Honestly, it’s also a mental health issue when people can disconnect from their work and connect with their family and their lives.”
“Deeply confusing”
However, the reforms met with a cool response from Australian industry leaders.
“The ‘right to switch off’ laws are rushed, ill-conceived and deeply confusing,” the Australian Industry Group said in a statement.
“At a minimum, employers and employees will now be uncertain whether they can take or make a call outside of working hours to offer an extra shift,” it said.
The law, passed in February, came into force on Monday for medium and large companies.
Smaller companies with fewer than 15 employees will be included from August 26, 2025.
“We encourage workplace stakeholders to educate themselves about the right to disconnect and to use common sense to apply it in their workplace,” said Anna Booth, head of Australia’s industrial relations regulator, Fair Work Ombudsman.
Under the law, a court could order employees to stop unreasonably refusing to be contacted outside of working hours, and employers could also be ordered to stop unreasonably demanding that their employees respond, it said.
The question of what is appropriate will “depend on the circumstances,” the Fair Work Ombudsman said in a statement.
Decisive factors could be the reason for contact, the nature of the employee’s role and their compensation for overtime or availability, it said.
France introduced the right to switch off in 2017 to counteract the “always-on” culture encouraged by smartphones and other digital devices.