Australian Unions are warning that scrapping the new right to disconnect laws risks adding more than 100 minutes of unpaid overtime every week for the average Australian worker.
Today marks a year since Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton publicly announced the Coalition’s plans to roll back the right to disconnect laws if they win the election.
Analysis by the Centre for Future Work found that since the laws were introduced in August 2024, 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.
Before the right to disconnect came into effect, average wage earners in Australia performed about 3.3 billion hours of unpaid work; that figure is now down to 2.2 billion hours nationally.
The right to disconnect came into effect in August 2024 as part of the Closing Loopholes Bill, which the Coalition voted against. The reforms closed loopholes companies exploited to cut wages. The right to disconnect aims to address the ‘unpaid work loophole.’
Increased awareness and communication between employers and workers about the new laws have shown positive signs. According to a survey by global employment company Indeed, 74 per cent of Australian employers support the right to disconnect, and 55 per cent said they are more willing to compensate employees for working outside of ordinary hours.
YouGov’s latest poll found that 86 per cent of Australians support the law, including 75 per cent of Coalition voters.
The right to disconnect allows a worker to reasonably refuse to respond to out-of-hours based. A reasonable refusal depends on factors such as whether the employee is paid for out-of-hours contact, the level of disruption it causes, and their family responsibilities.
The annual surveys producing these findings for the Centre for Work survey over 1,000 employees.
The right to disconnect came into effect for most workers on 26 August, 2024. For employees of small businesses, it will apply from 26 August, 2025.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus:
“An overlooked impact of the right to disconnect has been the benefit to people’s cost-of-living. Australians getting paid for their actual hours of work, including overtime, helps people get ahead in life.
“For too long, some employers expected people to work for free after their scheduled working hours. This has significantly decreased since the introduction of the Albanese Government’s right to disconnect laws.
“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.
“This could cost an average worker more than 100 minutes in extra unpaid work a week. You don’t help people with the cost-of-living by cutting their overtime pay and making them work for free. 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.”
