‘Pay cut’: Fresh warning over threat to scrap right to disconnect

Australians have been issued a fresh warning over the recently introduced right to disconnect laws, with the huge impact of the change finally revealed.

Australians have been issued a fresh warning over the recently introduced Right to Disconnect laws, with new research showing just how badly scrapping the change would impact workers.

The legislation kicked in on August 26, 2024, giving staff working at a business with 15 or more employees the right to refuse contact outside of their working hours, along with the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from an employer or third party.

These rules will also apply to small businesses from August 26 of this year.

The new rules apply within reason and several factors need to be considered before sending your boss to voicemail, but, ultimately, any calls, texts or emails deemed to be “unreasonable” contact can now officially be ignored.

Recent analysis by the Centre for Future Work found that, since the laws were introduced last year, the amount of unpaid overtime has fallen from 5.4 to 3.6 hours per week – a 33 per cent reduction.

The decline in unpaid work was most significant for Australians aged 18-29, who experienced about a 40 per cent reduction in their weekly unpaid workload, according to the survey of over 1000 employees.

Workers can ignore unreasonable contact outside of working hours.

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However, with the looming federal election, there are concerns that benefits we have seen emerging since the introduction of the Right to Disconnect could soon disappear.

In February 2024, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton swore to roll back the laws if the Coalition wins the federal election.

Asked on Sky Newsif his party would repeal the changes that came in as part of Labor’s Industrial Relations reforms, he said, “Yes we will”.

“We will take the policy that’s in the country’s best interest that provides support for workers but doesn’t make it impossible – particularly for small businesses – to employ staff,” he said.

“Because particularly when the economy turns down, we want employers to err on the side of keeping those workers on.”

This isn’t the first time concern around the impact on small to medium businesses has been voiced.

Employment Hero head advisory of HR and EI Legal principal lawyer Simon Obee previously told news.com.au that these businesses are already feeling the effects of the increasing burden of red tape and legal compliance, with these new laws adding to the “already overflowing pool of regulations they need to comply with”.

Opposition Peter Dutton previously committed to scrapping the Right to Disconnect laws. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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However, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has warned that Mr Dutton being able to follow through on his promise to scrap the laws would have a severely negative impact of everyday Aussies.

If the Right to Disconnect laws are scrapped, workers are at risk of being saddled with more than one billion extra hours of unpaid work.

Before the introduction of the laws, average Aussie wage earners completed about 3.3 billion hours of unpaid work, with that number since dropping to 2.2 billion, according to the ACTU.

“Peter Dutton has promised to take away people’s right to disconnect if he is elected, which will result in a pay cut for many workers and give the green light to bad employers to normalise free work from Australians as an expectation of the job,” ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said.

This risks adding more than 100 minutes of unpaid overtime every week for the average Australian worker.

“It is astounding that the Coalition is so incredibly hostile to Australian workers having the right to disconnect. Politicians might like being switched onto their jobs all the time, but most people actually have lives outside of work,” she said.

Billy, a legal professional living and working an Adelaide, is one of the many workers who have felt the positive impact of the Right to Disconnect.

As a young lawyer, the 26-year-old said the laws have been a “game changer” for his industry.

“Its given workers a way for us to actually step away from work, knowing we don’t have to be constantly available outside of hours,” he told news.com.au.

The laws have had a huge impact on Aussie workers. Picture: iStock

“Particularly now that digital technology makes you directly contactable at all hours of the day and night, it is vital that workers are protected against unreasonable requests on their time outside of work.”

Billy said the laws are a big step in the right direction, allowing workers to reset the balance of what is reasonable.

It also goes beyond just allowing workers to reclaim time away from work, with the lawyer noting it is also “critical” to ensuring employees get paid for every hour they put in.

“My colleagues and I are really concerned about Peter Dutton’s plan to remove the right to disconnect. I think it shows how out of touch he is with working Australians,” he said.

“His approach would worsen the work-life balance we have now and would increase the stress and burnout of workers.”

Ms McManus said the benefit to people’s cost of living is an “overlooked” impact of the new laws, with many more Aussies now getting paid for the actual hours they are working.

“For too long, some employers expected people to work for free after their scheduled working hours,” she said, noting that this has “significantly decreased” since the Right to Disconnect was introduced.

Originally published as ‘Pay cut’: Fresh warning over threat to scrap right to disconnect