With the new law in place, in most cases employees can no longer be penalised if they refuse to answer their employer’s call outside of working hours. Reuters news agency writes.

Using personal phones at work makes employees feel obligated to respond to work messages wherever and whenever, agrees John Hopkins, associate professor at Swinburne University of Technology. According to Hopkins, it has become commonplace around the world to receive work emails, texts and phone calls outside of working hours, “even when you’re on vacation.”

Australia is not the first country to pass such a law. About two dozen other countries, mostly in Europe and Latin America, have passed similar laws in the past.

In front of the judge

One of those countries is France. In 2017, the European country introduced a similar law. A year later, a pest control company was fined €60,000 because the company required one of its employees to have his phone on at all times.

According to a study by the Australia Institute, Australians will work an average of 281 hours of unpaid overtime in 2023. That will amount to nearly A$130 billion, or nearly €80 billion.

Under Australian law, employers are still allowed to contact their employees. But now those employees can refuse to answer the phone or respond to messages if doing so is “reasonable”.

Who decides?

Whether it is actually reasonable to do so will be assessed by Australia’s industrial arbiter, the Fair Work Commission (FWC). In making their assessment, they must take into account the employee’s role, their personal circumstances and how and why the contact was made.

The FWC can impose fines of up to A$19,000 for an employee, or up to A$94,000 for a company. This amounts to more than €11,500 for an individual, or a maximum fine of around €57,000 for companies.