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Australia is instituting no-contact rules with your manager, and will impose stiff penalties on violators.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year<\/a>, the country introduced legislation that gave workers what many pine for: the ability to ignore their boss after clocking out.\u00a0<\/p>\n The law, which was passed in February and came into effect on Monday, covers what is otherwise known as \u201cthe right to disconnect.\u201d Now, millions of Aussie workers\u2019 phones might as well be swimming with the weird overgrown Australian fishes when they unplug. In this newly unveiled workforce<\/a> landscape, most employees can\u2019t be punished for not responding to their bosses outside of their hours.<\/p>\n Employers can still reach out past an employee\u2019s workday, but don\u2019t expect them to text back. That\u2019s because the legislation \u201cprotects employees who refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working hours, unless their refusal is unreasonable,\u201d according to press materials<\/a> from Australia\u2019s workplace tribunal, Fair Work Commission (FWC).\u00a0<\/p>\n The FWC is set to further rule<\/a> on what disputes are unreasonable based on factors that include, but are not limited to, the nature of employment, why contact is being made, and if an employee is paid for overtime.\u00a0<\/p>\n If a worker is found to be needlessly having their line blown up, the FWC can issue fines of up to 19,000 Australian dollars for an individual employee and or up to 94,000 Australian dollars for a company, per Reuters<\/a>. Across the water, that\u2019s equal to almost $13,000 for managers and $63,700 for a guilty company.\u00a0<\/p>\n Australia isn\u2019t the only country that has recently tried to help employees maintain their work-life boundaries. In 2017, France\u2019s announced<\/a> the right to disconnect it, and wasn\u2019t kidding around either, as a pest control employer<\/a> was slapped with a 60,000-euro fine just one year later for not following the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since then, such legislation has gained traction in parts of South America and elsewhere in Europe<\/a>. In the shadow of the pandemic, as remote work became more common, these rules became all the more prevalent and urgent. While employees might not have the same strict hours, their schedules are fuzzier and sometimes result in even longer work days<\/a> than before. In short, the boundaries were being eroded.<\/p>\n And in the U.S., overtime pay<\/a> has been chipped away at to the point that employees now put in an average of nine unpaid hours<\/a> in overtime each week, per a 2021 ADP survey. The nation has no \u201cright to disconnect\u201d rules in place, though legislation has been introduced recently in California<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reaching out is perhaps simpler than before with the advent of Zoom<\/a>, Slack, and all the corporate accouterments that give a little ding, which creates the opposite of a Pavlovian response in an office worker. And it\u2019s simply a modern phenomenon that needy bosses have your number.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s so easy to make contact, common sense doesn\u2019t get applied anymore,\u201d Michele O\u2019Neil, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, told Reuters. \u201cWe think this will cause bosses to pause and think about whether they really need to send that text or that email.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She deemed<\/a> the recent enactment of the law \u201ca historic day for working people,\u201d though not everyone is jumping for joy, especially those who represent employers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018right to disconnect\u2019 laws are rushed, poorly thought out and deeply confusing,\u201d the Australian Industry Group said in a statement circulated by the AFP, warning that employees would be confused about scheduling extra shifts after work hours.<\/p>\n Either way, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is likely satisfied on this Australian winter day. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat we are simply saying is that someone who isn\u2019t being paid 24 hours a day shouldn\u2019t be penalized if they\u2019re not online and available 24 hours a day,\u201d he said back in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Newsletter:<\/strong> CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about\u2013and from inside\u2013the C-suite. Subscribe Now<\/a>.<\/div>\n