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Slacker’s charter or wellness boost? ‘Right to disconnect’ worries employers but may improve health

Australia’s new law, which came into force at the end of August, aims to protect employees from unreasonable out-of-hours contact

Gold Coast restaurant owner Glen Day said he was enjoying breakfast one day last month when he was stunned to learn that Australia was introducing a new ‘right to disconnect’ law for employees.
“It just came out of the blue,” he said. “I thought ‘what? Where is that coming from?’ You just scratch your head and think ‘haven’t they got anything better to do’?”
The law, which came into force at the end of August, aims to protect employees from unreasonable out-of-hours contact, has triggered lively debate in Australia about how to safeguard mental health and prevent work-related stress without damaging company productivity.
It does not strictly ban employers from contacting their workers by email or phone outside of defined hours, but it does preserve the rights of employees to “refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working hours, unless their refusal is unreasonable.”
Employment experts expect the roll-out of the new rules will be watched closely by other countries considering their own forms of legislation. The British government has already signalled its intent to address the question head on.
Australia’s legislation adds to growing momentum around the world to tackle burnout among employees driven to exhaustion by the pressure to remain constantly accessible, particularly under post-pandemic hybrid working arrangements that blur the lines between office and home life.
Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany and Canada are among the more pro-active countries already implementing varying degrees of rights for employees to ignore their employers, within reason, out of hours.  
Before the July election, the UK Labour Party promised to “bring in the ‘right to switch off’, so working from home does not become homes turning into 24/7 offices.”
Moves by Ireland and Belgium to foster dialogue between workers and employees about best workplace practices have been mooted as possible models to follow.
But debate over government intervention is likely to be contentious. An Institute of Directors survey of 687 business leaders in March found that 58 per cent objected to a right to disconnect, citing concerns about creating a culture of “ambulance chasers” and the need to contact people in extremis.
Australia’s experience may provide valuable data as the UK finds its own path.
Andrew McKeller, head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry described the new law as “a triumph of stupidity over common sense” in an ABC interview earlier this year, and it’s a view reflected by many business owners like Glen Day.
Mr Day said he had a good relationship with the employees of his three Mexican and three pancake restaurants on Queensland’s Gold Coast and saw the new law as “another bureaucratic waste of time” that hindered business.
“We have the cost-of-living crisis so [people] are not spending much and wages have rocketed up and the cost of goods, so it’s pretty tough times to be in hospitality. Then they throw something like this at you,” he said.
“We can’t protect everyone from everything in this world. It’s getting out of control.”
 But advocates of the right to switch off argue that businesses are crying wolf and that too many people are working unpaid outside of contracted hours.
“What we’re simply saying is that someone who is not being paid 24 hours a day shouldn’t be penalised if they’re not online and available 24 hours a day,” said Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, ahead of the law coming into force.
Increasing alarm about the physical and mental impact of burnout caused by long working hours has also spurred governments into action.
A joint analysis by the World Health Organisation and International Labour Organisation in 2021 of exposure to long working hours in 194 countries found sufficient evidence of higher risks of ischemic heart disease and stroke among people working over 55 hours a week.
In Australia, a report earlier this year by government agency Safe Work Australia revealing that work-related mental health issues had risen by 36.9 per cent since 2018 also garnered support for measures to help employees turn off from the office. 
Dr Carys Chan, a senior lecturer in organizational behaviour and human resources at Griffith University said surveys showed work-related technological use after office hours was contributing to stress, anxiety and depression.
The new law was a good reminder “to force people to think whether that message or that communication has to go out after hours,” she said.
While there might be a period of adjustment to the legislation, respecting privacy and giving employees time to recover would benefit productivity, Dr Chan argued.  
“Obviously in the long run if your employees are well rested and have the option to disconnect from work after hours, a lot of them will have better wellbeing,” she said. “And if you show your employees understanding I think they are also more likely to reciprocate through increased loyalty by staying.”
Proponents of the law also cite its limits.
It does not currently apply to small businesses of fewer than 15 people and outlines factors that determine whether communications outside of working hours is reasonable, including the urgency of the situation, method of contact, seniority of the employee and adequate compensation.  
Dr Andrew Dhaenens, from the University of South Wales business school, predicted that industry objections would be “very short lived.”
“You won’t really see a lot of changes for most workers, but you will start to see companies being a little bit mindful about how they are writing job descriptions to make sure that employees know where their responsibilities are as far as answering the phone off the clock,” he said.
Employers would likely better define working hours, work/life balance and compensation for responsibilities, he said.
“Whether we admit it or not it’s a sort of quiet working right and the right to disconnect law is a good way to enshrine an Australian working value that we all sort of take for granted and that we would expect most people to have,” he said. “That’s why it is so important to actually put it into legislation.”
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