The Right to Disconnect in Australia: What Employers Need to Know

The right to disconnect gives Australian employees the right to refuse unreasonable contact from their employer outside of working hours. It has applied to all businesses regardless of size since 26 August 2025. Here is what it actually means and what you need to do about it.

Key date: The right to disconnect has applied to all Australian businesses, including small businesses with fewer than 15 employees, since 26 August 2025. It is now embedded in modern awards.

When the right to disconnect was first announced, a lot of small business owners thought it did not apply to them or that it meant they could never contact an employee outside business hours. Neither is true. Here is the actual picture.

What is the right to disconnect?

The right to disconnect is a protection under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) that gives employees the right to refuse to monitor, read, or respond to contact from an employer outside their ordinary working hours, unless that refusal is unreasonable. (Fair Work Ombudsman — Right to Disconnect)

The key word is unreasonable. The law does not ban out-of-hours contact. It gives employees the right to refuse contact that is unreasonable given the circumstances.

What counts as unreasonable contact?

Whether contact is unreasonable depends on the situation. The Fair Work Act sets out factors to consider:

• The reason for the contact and how urgent it is
• How disruptive the contact is to the employee
• Whether the employee is paid extra for being available outside hours
• The employee’s role and level of seniority
• The employee’s personal circumstances, including family or caring responsibilities

A call to a senior manager about a genuine operational emergency at 7pm is very different from a non-urgent question sent via text to a part-time admin person at 9pm on a Friday. Context matters.

“The right to disconnect does not mean you can never contact your team outside hours. It means employees can reasonably refuse contact that is not justified by the circumstances. Most businesses just need a clear policy and a bit of common sense.”

What does this mean for small businesses practically?

For most small businesses, the practical impact is modest if you run a reasonable workplace. Where it starts to create risk is in businesses where after-hours contact is habitual, normalised, or where employees feel pressure to always be available regardless of their role or the urgency of the matter.

The clearest risk is if an employee raises a dispute about after-hours contact and the employer either has no policy or a pattern of behaviour that looks unreasonable in hindsight.

What should you do?

• Add a right to disconnect clause to your employment contracts and workplace policies
• Define what counts as genuine after-hours contact needs in your business and which roles those apply to
• Train managers not to expect responses to non-urgent messages outside hours
• Use scheduled send features on email if you work outside hours but do not need an immediate response
• If a role genuinely requires after-hours availability, make sure that is reflected in the role description and the remuneration

What happens if there is a dispute?

If an employee and employer cannot resolve a right to disconnect dispute themselves, either party can apply to the Fair Work Commission for an order. The FWC can order an employee to respond to contact, or order an employer to stop making unreasonable contact. (Fair Work Ombudsman — Right to Disconnect)

Most disputes will not get to the FWC if the employer has a clear policy and a reasonable approach. Jigsaw HR can help you update your policies and employment contracts to address the right to disconnect properly.