The Australian government has passed a new law which grants millions of workers the legal right not to attend to communications from their employers when they are off duty.
Hitherto, workers were often required to attend to calls, texts, or emails from their boss even after working hours.
However, thanks to the new legislation which became effective on Monday, August 26,2024, Australian workers can now refuse to monitor, read, or respond to their employers’ attempts to contact them outside of work hours—unless that refusal is deemed ‘unreasonable’.
This reform is to safeguard personal time and to promote a more balanced work-life harmony. An employer faces a fine up to $63,000 for contacting a worker for non-essential reasons after working hours.
‘We want to make sure that just as people don’t get paid 24 hours a day, they don’t have to work for 24 hours a day’, adding ‘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 life’, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese explained on national television, ABC. SOURCE: Kasatintin.com
