Australia has some of its priorities in order, at least. The country has recently enacted a “right to disconnect” law that lets workers ignore work-related communications during their personal lives. The legislation, which goes into effect on for most people on August 26, says that employees have no obligation to their company to respond to emails, calls, or any kind of messaging outside of regular work hours, with the exception of situations where that may be deemed “unreasonable.”
This doesn’t mean that employees have 100% halted the intrusion of work into their private lives. The “unreasonable” part relies on a variety of factors, like the employee’s role within the company and personal circumstances. If there’s a dispute between the employee and the company over what kind of messages can be ignored, those will be handled between the employee and employer. But! If they can’t come to an agreement, a federal body called the Fair Work Commission will step in. The commission can issue cease and desist orders or impose fines for noncompliance.
This kind of right-to-disconnect law is not especially new. European and Latin American countries have been enacting such laws to protect work-life balance in recent years, with similar laws already in place in over 20 countries. That wasn’t a whole lot of good to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, but right to disconnect laws might be one of the few, as work and home life became so intertwined that companies started abusing the fact that employees were home all the time.
Now, employees can ensure they don’t have to suffer through unpaid overtime and will maybe suffer a little less stress. Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton pledged to repeal the law if his coalition next year. Good luck using the promise of stripping away worker protections as a pillar of your reelection campaign, Pete! Sure seems like a winning strategy.
As for this idea coming to the United States, never say never. But a similar bill in California, inspired by Australia’s and proposed by a San Francisco assemblyman, stalled out this past spring after business groups came out against it.
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The post Australia Unveils “Right to Disconnect” Law, So You Can Legally Ignore Your Boss appeared first on VICE.
