Right to Disconnect 2 Years Later: is it helping Australians disconnect?

More than a third of Australians are still having trouble disconnecting from work outside hours almost two years after right to disconnect laws were first established, a new poll by HR and payroll company ADP has shown.

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The right to disconnect laws, which commenced in late 2024, give employees a legal right to refuse contact from their employer and disconnect outside of work hours.

In the poll held by ADP, 38 per cent of participants said they were still being contacted outside of work hours at least once a week.

About a fifth said they haven’t been able to disconnect at all.

Research from the Robert Walters Recruitment Agency has shown similar outcomes; many employees across Australia are still logging in outside of their contracted work hours.

Rose Guise, Senior Director of Robert Walters in Melbourne, said that the introduction of the law by itself “isn’t necessarily enough to change behaviour”.

Guise noted that mass redundancies and the adoption of AI have played a factor behind this always-connected culture. 

She said young people also feel “invisible pressure” to always be available when entering a new workplace.

Associate Professor in Human Resource Management Huong Le said that employees may not feel comfortable raising their voice because they feel pressured to keep their job.

She said employees might not understand that they have a right to disconnect from work.

Although the law gives employees the right to refuse contact, this refusal can be deemed unreasonable based on the employee’s contracted hours and workplace agreements.

If an employer and employee disagree about their workplace rights, they are able to bring the dispute to the Fair Work Commission.

Martin Freckmann, Team Leader at the Fair Work Commission, said that 17 applications to deal with a dispute had been received since the law first commenced.

“At this time there is no Right to Disconnect dispute finalised before the Fair Work Commission,” Freckmann said.

So how are workplaces meant to navigate the right to disconnect?

“One of the best things you can do both as an employee and as an employer is to set really clear expectations and continue to manage those expectations,” Guise said.

She encouraged using the tools in our devices to set notification times and to make it clear when we’re on or offline.

Meanwhile, Huong Le proposed a structural change to deal with the lack of awareness that companies might have regarding the law.

To get companies to comply with the right to disconnect, Le said the government must “introduce a legal system that [companies] must follow as a base of business,” no matter their size.

For more information on the right to disconnect, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman’s website.