As members will be aware, as part of the Closing Loopholes legislation, an employee ‘Right to Disconnect’ will come into effect in August 2024 (later for small businesses). This will give employees the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact, or attempted contact, from their employer (or a third party if it relates to their work) outside of the employee’s working hours, unless the refusal is unreasonable.
Through our relationship with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), RCSA members have an opportunity to feed into consideration in detail by the Fair Work Commission into how this right will operate in practice. We are seeking insights and examples around how this issue may already be dealt with in particular industries, as well as any industry specific issues or challenges this right may pose. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) is looking for practical information which will allow them to better understand the extent of relevant issues across all industries and company types.
To support ACCI’s submission to the FWC assist us in this process, we would appreciate it if Members could provide us with:
- Information about how you are already dealing with employees monitoring emails, being on-call for contact out of hours etc. For instance, do you have enterprise agreements, or Awards which require on-call allowances, or have other requirements or have policies or rules around when an employee might be expected to monitor emails or take calls from their employer or third parties;
- Are you aware of any potential industry specific concerns. For instance, is there a particular industry or sector you supply to that may have specific issues that FWC should be aware of. Ie: would restrictions on calling employees after hours lead to safety risks or other operational issues; and
- Any other relevant information.
Please provide feedback to Lily Andrews in our advocacy team at [email protected] or 0448 332 610. We are seeking all feedback by Friday 10th May 2024. For all and any additional enquiries, please do not hesitate to reach out to Lily Andrews.