Stories
Workers Reject 24/7 Availability: Australia Enacts 'Right to Disconnect' Law
- •A SurveyMonkey study reveals 85% of workers receive after-hours communications, with 55% feeling constant availability is the norm.
- •Celebrities like Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran have opted out of constant phone access, using alternative methods to manage communications.
- •Australia's Fair Work Act now grants employees the right to refuse after-hours contact from employers, effective August 2024 for large businesses and August 2025 for small businesses.
- •The Australian law allows refusal unless unreasonable, covering contact from employers and third parties, with disputes handled by the Fair Work Commission.
- •The UK has not followed suit, with a proposed 'right to switch off' through a statutory code of practice reportedly abandoned.
Key Questions Answered
Under Australia's Fair Work Act, employees can refuse to monitor, read, or respond to employer contact outside working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable. The right applied to businesses with 15 or more staff starting August 26, 2024, and to small businesses on August 26, 2025.
Justin Bieber stopped carrying a mobile phone in 2021, using an iPad to communicate strictly with his management team. Ed Sheeran went further by ditching phones entirely in 2015 and shifting his communications to an email account that he checks only once a week.
No, despite a pre-election commitment by Labour to introduce a right to switch off, the Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on December 18, 2025, without it, and government sources indicated the proposal was dropped.
