Australia follows France with ‘right to disconnect’ law for workers

People 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 law is similar to those in some European and Latin American countries.

Unions welcomed the legislation, saying it gave workers a way to regain work-life balance.

“Today is a historic day for working people,” said Michele O’Neil, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

“The trade union movement has won the legal right for Australians to spend quality time with their loved ones without the stress of being forced to constantly answer unreasonable calls and emails,” she said.

“Australian unions reclaim right to walk out after work”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the reform promoted by his centre-left Labor government.

“We want to make sure that just as people are not paid 24 hours a day, they don’t have to work 24 hours a day,” he told national broadcaster ABC.

“It’s a mental health issue, frankly, as well, for people to be able to disconnect from their work and connect with their family and their lives.”

“Deeply Confused”

But the reforms have been welcomed by Australian industry leaders.

“The ‘right to disconnect’ laws are rushed, ill-conceived and deeply confusing,” the Australian Industry Group said in a statement.

“At the very least, employers and employees will now be uncertain whether they can pick up or make an out-of-hours call to provide an extra shift,” it said.

The law, passed in February, went into effect on Monday for medium and large companies.

Smaller companies with fewer than 15 employees will be covered from 26 August 2025.

“We encourage workplace participants to educate themselves about the right to opt out and take a common sense approach to applying it in their workplace,” the head of Australia’s workplace relations regulator said , Fair Work Ombudsman, Anna Booth.

Under the law, a court can order workers to stop unreasonably withholding out-of-hours contact, and employers can also be ordered to stop asking employees to respond unreasonably.

The question of what is reasonable will “depend on the circumstances”, the Fair Work Ombudsman said in a statement.

Deciding factors may include the reason for the contact, the nature of the employee’s role and their compensation for overtime or availability, it said.

France introduced the right to disconnect in 2017, hoping to tackle the “always on” culture facilitated by smartphones and other digital devices.