The Right to Disconnect rules will apply to small businesses from today and managers have been warned to follow the rules. (Source: Getty)
Small businesses are being warned to jump on board as the Right to Disconnect laws will apply to them from today. The legislation was brought in this time last year for larger companies, but workplaces that employ 15 staff or fewer were given an extra year to adapt.
There are roughly 2.6 million small businesses dotted around the country, and managers will have to ensure staff aren’t unreasonably contacted out of hours. Anne Nalder, CEO of the Small Business Association of Australia (SBAA), told Yahoo Finance she’s concerned about how it might impact the industry.
“There could be complications for those who are casuals, as there are times when someone is sick and cannot report for work, resulting in the employer having to call an employee potentially after hours,” she said.
“This is another example of further regulatory imposition on small businesses, who are already facing tough economic conditions.”
A recent dismissal case in Queensland had the Right to Disconnect rules cited for the first time in court.
A primary school teacher is suing her former employer for nearly $800,000 after she didn’t respond to allegations of inappropriate behaviour sent to her during school holidays when she wasn’t technically working.
Lyndon Burke, founding partner at Burke Mangan Lawyers, said this case should serve as a wake-up call for all bosses that workers might not hesitate to exercise their rights.
“Cases like this show the law isn’t just a symbolic change – there’s real legal and financial risk for employers who get it wrong,” he said.
“If you haven’t updated your policies and trained your managers, you could be next.”
Have you been impacted by the right to disconnect? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com
The Right to Disconnect rules are meant to protect employees from being hounded by managers or colleagues with messages, emails or calls outside of regular hours.
This is also extended to work-related contact from clients or members of the public.
While the law doesn’t stop these people from contacting you, you have a right not to reply or engage with the communications.
But the main caveat embedded within the legislation is that you only have a right to disconnect from “unreasonable” contact out of hours.
If someone gets sick and can’t complete the presentation needed first-thing in the morning, your boss might determine it’s reasonable to call you to request that you finish it.
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But if you get a bevy of Slack messages asking you to look at a report outside of work hours when it’s not due until the end of the week, that might be labelled unreasonable because you can examine it when you’re back at work.
The Fair Work Commission outlines what matters must be considered when weighing up the unreasonable versus reasonable contact here.
The research on how effective the Right to Disconnect changes has been divided.
ELMO HR Software recently surveyed people affected and found only three in 10 felt very comfortable ignoring out-of-hours work messages.
Nearly two in five said they felt uncomfortable in giving those messages the cold shoulder.
More than three in five (62 per cent) admitted they responded to out-of-hours contact simply to “look committed” or “avoid negative judgement”.
Job site Indeed also found four out of five Aussie workers were still being contacted outside their normal hours, while 65 per cent said they’d been contacted by their boss on annual or personal leave.
However, new independent research by recruiter Robert Half found that in the year since the Fair Work Act ammendment came into effect, the majority of employers said their staff were exercising their right to disconnect and that the vast majority (93 per cent) were taking active steps to support them.
“Employers have noticed the right to disconnect is achieving what it was set out to do, with 77 per cent noticing their employees’ wellbeing and work-life balance have improved in the past 12 months,” Robert Half’s report said.
Robert Half’s director, Nicole Gorton, said the change had been “a catalyst for cultural change”.
“The ‘right to disconnect’ has sparked a positive change in workplace dynamics, with employees actively embracing the policy to set healthier boundaries after work hours, challenging the ‘always-on’ culture that has become so prevalent,” Gorton said.
Small business owners have been warned to be ready for the Right to Disconnect rules and not unreasonably contact staff out of hours. (Source: Getty) · draganab via Getty Images
The Centre for Future Work has also revealed that after the laws came into effect, the amount of unpaid overtime had fallen 33 per cent, from 5.4 to 3.6 hours per week.
The decline in unpaid work was highest for workers aged 18-29, who experienced about a 40 per cent reduction in their weekly unpaid workload.
Before the rules came in, Aussies were performing a collective 3.3 billion hours of unpaid work each year. That figure is now down to 2.2 billion hours nationally.
Recruiter Tammie Christofis Ballis is a small business owner and expressed concerns that Right to Disconnect laws could have a much bigger impact in smaller scale operations.
“They’ve got more staff and resources to deal with any issues that pop up,” she told Yahoo Finance.
“Sometimes with the smaller businesses, they might say, ‘Look, I need you to stay back an hour, otherwise a crucial business thing might not go through’.
Recruiter Tammie Christofis Ballis said small businesses like hers could be thrown into disarray due to Right to Disconnect laws. (Source: Supplied/Getty)
“I come from fish and chip shops and when there’s one down, the whole place feels it and you’re stuffed on a Friday night.”
She said this concept extends to plenty of small businesses, and the idea of what’s reasonable and unreasonable might look very different compared to a bigger company.
Nalder told Yahoo Finance that business owners will need to plan “well in advance” after the rules kick in and create “contingency plans for any unforeseen emergencies”.
She also called for owners to be granted “some leniency” in certain situations in the coming months as workers and bosses adjust to the new law.
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