What’s missing?
There has been a lot of discussion around the new ‘right to disconnect’ following the Closing Loopholes No. 2 legislation.
⚖️In summary the new provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) gives employees an enforceable workplace right to refuse to read, monitor, respond to contact (including attempted contact) from their employer or a third party (e.g. client, customer, supplier, stakeholder) outside of their ordinary working hours, unless such refusal is unreasonable.
⚠️It’s important to note, the right to disconnect doesn’t prohibit an employer or third party from contacting an employee, rather it allows the employee to ignore the ‘contact’ (which is not defined) unless the refusal was unreasonable.
📋Things to consider to determine if the refusal is reasonable:
🔹what is the reason for the contact? (e.g. is it an emergency, could it wait for the employees next shift?)
🔹the mode of contact or attempted contact (e.g. phone call, text message, email, slack/message via chat function) and level of disruption it causes the employee;
🔹is the employee being compensated (including non-monetary compensation) for working outside of ordinary work hours;
🔹the employee’s role and level of responsibility; &
🔹the employee’s personal circumstances including family or caring responsibilities.
🪜Practical steps for employers to do/consider?
✅ Set clear guidelines and/or update any policies regarding out of hours work or create a policy on the right to disconnect.
✅ Check your employment contracts and update them regarding additional hours/out of hours work.
✅ Review & update position descriptions to be clear on out of hours contact, the reason for it & limiting this if practical.
✅ Review the way work is done & organised to find better ways to structure work to minimise out of hours contact.
💼🏡Employers are in a great position to do more to improve work/life balance & physiological safety.
❓What’s missing:
Even with the right to disconnect it’s still difficult for employees to do this.
As good employers we should work with our teams to solve this.
Understandably some teams do require out of hours work, however consider how this could be limited. Consider setting up an on call roster so those who are off can actually switch off. This helps remove the mental stress/anxiety of what might happen or fear of what they might miss.
If your workplace uses a social media platform like workspace or workjam, consider turning these off at a certain time to help employees switch off.
Provide training on:
📲 How to manage your devices and communications.
🚫 How to use ‘do not disturb’ mode and limit push notifications.
📧 How to schedule emails so that they send at appropriate times to ensure it doesn’t arrive until the other person is at work or at least within core working hours.
If you have questions or would like support to implement this in your workplace contact Raven HR today.
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