Are you being texted by your boss on the weekend? Work emails pinging long after you've clocked out?

Australian employees now have the legal right to ignore such intrusions into their personal time thanks to a new "right to disconnect" law aimed at preventing work from encroaching on home life.

The new rule, which took effect on Monday, protects employees from being penalized for not reading or responding to work-related communications outside of their official work hours.

Supporters say the law gives workers the confidence to stand up against the steady invasion of their personal lives by work emails, texts and calls, a trend that has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled the division between home and work.

"Today is a historic day for working people," said Michele O'Neil, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

"Australian unions have reclaimed the right to knock off after work," she said.

"Before we had digital technology there was no encroachment, people would go home at the end of a shift and there would be no contact until they returned the following day," said John Hopkins, an associate professor at Swinburne University of Technology.

"Now, globally it’s the norm to have emails, SMS, phone calls outside those hours, even when on holiday."

Australians worked on average 281 hours of unpaid overtime in 2023, according to a survey last year by the Australia Institute, which estimated the monetary value of the labor at AU$130 billion ($88 billion).

The changes add Australia to a group of roughly two dozen countries, mostly in Europe and Latin America, which have similar laws.

Pioneer France introduced the rules in 2017 and a year later fined pest control firm Rentokil Initial 60,000 euros ($66,700) for requiring an employee to always have his phone on.

In the streets of Sydney, people appeared to welcome the change.

"I have a very hard time disconnecting and even though I may not necessarily be logged on, my brain is constantly working overtime," not-for-profit worker Karolina Joseski told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"So getting that after-hour call from my boss doesn't necessarily help."

Rachel Abdelnour, who works in advertising, said the changes would help her disconnect in an industry where clients often have different working hours.

"I think it's actually really important that we have laws like this," she told Reuters. "We spend so much of our time connected to our phones, connected to our emails all day, and I think that it's really hard to switch off as it is."

Refusals must be reasonable

To cater to emergencies and jobs with irregular hours, the rule still allows employers to contact their workers, who can only refuse to respond where it is reasonable to do so.

Determining whether a refusal is reasonable will be up to Australia's industrial umpire, the Fair Work Commission (FWC), which must take into account an employee's role, personal circumstances and how and why the contact was made.

It has the power to issue a cease and desist order and, failing that, levy fines of up to AU$19,000 for an employee or up to AU$94,000 for a company.

However, the Australian Industry Group, an employer group, says that ambiguity about how the rule applies will create confusion for bosses and workers. Jobs will become less flexible and, in doing so, slow the economy, it added.

"The laws came literally and figuratively out of left field, were introduced with minimal consultation about their practical effect and have left little time for employers to prepare," the group said on Thursday.

Australian Council of Trade Unions' O'Neil said the caveat built into the law meant it wouldn't interfere with reasonable requests. Instead, it will stop workers from paying the price for poor management planning, she said.

She cited an unidentified worker who finished a shift at midnight, only to be texted four hours later and told to be back at work by 6 a.m.

"It's so easy to make contact; common sense doesn’t get applied anymore," she said.

"We think this will cause bosses to pause and think about whether they really need to send that text or that email."