What Is the New Right to Disconnect Law in Australia (2026)? Employer Obligations, Unreasonable Contact, Policy Templates & FWC Process

Understanding what is the new right to disconnect law in Australia is now a compliance priority for every employer operating under the national workplace relations system. Introduced through amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009, the right empowers eligible employees to refuse to monitor, read or respond to work-related contact outside their ordinary working hours, unless that refusal is unreasonable. The right first applied to most national system employees from 26 August 2024, and coverage extended to small business employees from 26 August 2025. With early Fair Work Commission determinations in 2026 beginning to shape the practical meaning of “unreasonable contact,” employers who have not yet updated policies, trained managers and documented processes face growing legal and reputational risk.

Summary, What Employers Need to Know Right Now

Before diving into the statutory detail, here are the compliance actions every Australian employer should have completed, or should act on immediately:

• Update workplace policies. Adopt a standalone right to disconnect policy, or amend existing after-hours contact and communications policies, that reflects the Fair Work Act provisions, including clear emergency and on-call exceptions.
• Train managers and supervisors. Ensure every person who directs work understands the right, knows when after-hours contact is likely reasonable or unreasonable, and follows a documented escalation protocol.
• Audit communication channels. Review email scheduling tools, messaging platforms (Teams, Slack, WhatsApp groups) and automated notifications to prevent routine after-hours contact that may trigger a complaint.
• Record work hours and contacts. Maintain contemporaneous logs of any after-hours contact, the reason for it and the employee’s response. These records are critical evidence in any Fair Work Commission dispute.
• Implement an internal complaints process. Establish a clear pathway for employees to raise right to disconnect concerns internally before escalation to the FWC, including investigation protocols and resolution timeframes.
• Monitor FWC decisions. Early FWC determinations through 2026 are defining how the “unreasonable” test applies in practice. Employers should review new decisions and update policies accordingly.

The Fair Work Ombudsman and the Fair Work Commission both provide official guidance and right to disconnect fact sheet resources for employers. The sections below unpack each obligation in detail.

Overview, What Is the New Right to Disconnect Law in Australia?

The right to disconnect is a workplace right inserted into the Fair Work Act 2009 through the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Act 2024. It gives national system employees an enforceable entitlement to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact, or attempted contact, from their employer or a third party related to their work, outside their working hours, unless that refusal is unreasonable.

Importantly, the right to disconnect under the Fair Work Act does not prohibit employers from sending communications. It protects the employee’s right not to engage with them outside working hours. The distinction matters: an employer can still dispatch emails, but cannot require a response until the employee’s next working period, unless the circumstances make refusal unreasonable.

Who Is Covered?

The right applies to all national system employees, that is, employees of constitutional corporations, Commonwealth public servants and employees in the territories, as well as employees covered by modern awards and enterprise agreements within the Fair Work system. Independent contractors are excluded. From 26 August 2024, the right applied to employees of non-small-business employers. From 26 August 2025, it extended to employees of small business employers (those with fewer than 15 employees at the relevant time).

What the Right Allows Employees to Do

Employees may refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact from their employer, or from a third party if the contact relates to their work, outside their ordinary working hours. The right is designated a “workplace right” under the Fair Work Act, meaning employees are protected from adverse action for exercising or proposing to exercise it.

Key Dates and Applicability

The right to disconnect law in Australia rolled out in a phased timeline. Employers should confirm which date applied, or applies, to their workforce and ensure policies were in place before the relevant commencement.

Employers who missed the relevant commencement date should treat policy implementation as urgent. A lack of a formalised policy does not excuse non-compliance and may weaken the employer’s position in any FWC dispute.

Employer Obligations Under the Fair Work Act

The right to disconnect creates a set of practical obligations for employers, even though the legislation is framed as an employee entitlement. The Fair Work Ombudsman guidance and Australian Public Service Commission resources outline several core duties.

Policy Drafting Obligations

While the Fair Work Act does not mandate a specific standalone policy, best practice, reinforced by the APSC’s public-sector guidance, is to adopt a clear, written right to disconnect policy that covers:

• Statement of the right. Acknowledge the employee’s entitlement under the Act.
• Scope. Define “ordinary working hours” by reference to the employee’s contract, award or enterprise agreement.
• Exceptions. Specify circumstances where after-hours contact is expected (emergencies, on-call rosters, regulatory obligations).
• Third-party contact. Address contact from clients, customers, contractors or overseas counterparts related to work.
• Internal complaints process. Set out how employees should raise concerns and the investigation pathway.
• Consequences. Note that both unreasonable employer contact and unreasonable employee refusal may have consequences.

Manager Training and Reasonable Expectations

Policies are only effective if managers apply them consistently. Training should cover:

• When contact is likely reasonable, genuine emergencies, pre-agreed on-call arrangements, time-sensitive regulatory requirements.
• When contact is likely unreasonable, routine task assignments, non-urgent queries, schedule reminders that could wait until the next working day.
• How to use communication tools, scheduling emails for delivery during work hours, using “delay send” functions, marking messages as non-urgent.
• Documentation, recording the reason for any after-hours contact contemporaneously.

Employer action checklist: Review and update employment contracts, modern award interpretations and enterprise agreement clauses for consistency with the right. Confirm working hours definitions. Retain records of all training delivered, including dates, attendees and content covered.

What Counts as “Unreasonable” Contact, Factors and Examples

The practical weight of the right to disconnect law in Australia sits on the word “unreasonable.” The Fair Work Act does not define the term exhaustively, but both the legislation and early Fair Work Commission guidance identify several factors to consider when determining whether an employee’s refusal to respond is unreasonable, or, conversely, whether the employer’s contact was unreasonable in the first place.

Factors that industry observers expect the FWC to weigh include:

• The reason for the contact, was there a genuine urgency or operational need?
• How the contact was made, phone call versus a scheduled email.
• The level of disruption to the employee, frequency, duration and timing of the contact.
• Whether the employee is compensated for being available, on-call allowances, overtime provisions or annualised salary arrangements covering additional hours.
• The nature of the employee’s role and level of responsibility, senior executives with crisis-management duties versus entry-level staff.
• The employee’s personal circumstances, where these are known, such as caring responsibilities or health conditions.
• Any prior agreement, contractual or enterprise agreement terms that contemplate after-hours availability.
• Whether the contact relates to workplace health and safety, WHS obligations may require immediate communication.

Likely Reasonable Contact

• A supervisor calls a rostered on-call employee about a critical system outage at 9 pm, consistent with the on-call roster and allowance.
• A safety manager sends an urgent SMS about a workplace incident requiring an immediate regulatory notification.
• A CEO contacts a CFO on a Sunday regarding a time-sensitive ASX continuous-disclosure obligation.

Likely Unreasonable Contact

• A manager sends a non-urgent task list via WhatsApp at 10 pm, expecting a reply that evening.
• A supervisor repeatedly calls an employee on annual leave about administrative matters that could be handled by other team members.
• An employer schedules mandatory training completion notifications that trigger push alerts at 11 pm.

Edge Cases

• A client in a different time zone emails an employee directly at 7 am Australian time (outside the employee’s 9-to-5 hours), the employer should address third-party contact expectations in policy.
• A manager sends a “for information only” email at 8 pm with no expectation of reply, the likely practical effect will depend on workplace culture and whether the employee felt compelled to respond.

Early indications suggest the FWC will assess the totality of circumstances rather than applying a rigid bright-line rule. Employers who maintain documented justifications for each instance of after-hours contact, combined with clear policies and genuine emergency definitions, will be best positioned to defend their conduct.

Small Business Considerations, Special Rules and Start Date

The small business right to disconnect start date was 26 August 2025. From that date, employees of businesses with fewer than 15 employees gained the same workplace right as their counterparts in larger organisations. The NSW Government’s Small Business Commissioner published guidance for the right to disconnect in NSW, offering practical tips tailored to smaller employers.

Small business employers should prioritise:

• A simple, one-page policy, adapted from the right to disconnect policy template clauses set out below, covering the core right, exceptions, and who to contact with questions.
• A brief manager guide, a checklist of “ask before you contact” questions (Is this urgent? Can it wait until tomorrow? Is the person on-call?).
• Contract and award review, ensure employment agreements reflect ordinary hours accurately and identify any existing after-hours availability expectations.
• Record-keeping, even informal records (a dated note in a shared document) are better than no records at all in a dispute.

Small businesses with limited HR resources should seek legal advice early to ensure their policies are compliant, particularly those with staff working across multiple time zones or in client-facing roles that historically involved after-hours availability.

Practical Right to Disconnect Policy Template, Clauses, Exceptions and Record-Keeping

The following policy skeleton is designed as a starting point. Employers should customise each clause to reflect their industry, workforce composition, applicable modern awards and enterprise agreements. The clauses are suitable for inclusion in a standalone right to disconnect policy template or as additions to an existing communications or after-hours work policy.

• Clause 1, Statement of Right. “[Company name] acknowledges and supports employees’ workplace right to disconnect under the Fair Work Act 2009. Employees are not required to monitor, read or respond to work-related contact outside their ordinary working hours unless their refusal to do so is unreasonable.”
• Clause 2, Ordinary Working Hours. “For the purposes of this policy, an employee’s ordinary working hours are those specified in their employment contract, applicable modern award or enterprise agreement. Employees on flexible arrangements should confirm their agreed hours with their manager in writing.”
• Clause 3, Emergency and On-Call Exceptions. “After-hours contact may be made where: (a) there is a genuine emergency involving risk to health, safety, property or the business; (b) the employee is rostered on-call and receiving the applicable on-call allowance; or (c) the contact relates to a time-sensitive legal or regulatory obligation. Managers must record the reason for emergency contact contemporaneously.”
• Clause 4, Third-Party Contact. “Where clients, customers or external stakeholders may contact employees outside working hours in relation to work, [Company name] will take reasonable steps to manage expectations, including setting auto-reply messages, redirecting contact to duty officers or adjusting client-facing communication protocols.”
• Clause 5, Manager Obligations. “Managers and supervisors must: (a) use ‘delay send’ or scheduled delivery functions for non-urgent communications; (b) not require a response to non-urgent contact outside working hours; (c) record any after-hours contact, including the reason and mode of contact.”
• Clause 6, Monitoring and Communication Tools. “[Company name] will audit automated notifications, platform alerts and system-generated communications to ensure they do not routinely reach employees outside working hours without operational justification.”
• Clause 7, Internal Complaints Process. “An employee who believes their right to disconnect has not been respected should raise the concern with [HR contact/manager] in the first instance. [Company name] will investigate within [X] business days and provide a written outcome. Unresolved disputes may be referred to the Fair Work Commission.”
• Clause 8, Consequences. “Unreasonable after-hours contact by managers, or unreasonable refusal by employees to respond where the contact is justified, may result in performance management, disciplinary action or referral to the FWC as applicable.”

Manager escalation flowchart (text version): (1) Is the matter urgent and time-sensitive? → If no, schedule for next business day. → If yes, proceed. (2) Is the employee rostered on-call? → If yes, contact via the agreed on-call channel. → If no, proceed. (3) Is there a genuine emergency or legal obligation? → If yes, contact and record the reason immediately. → If no, do not contact; it can wait.

Customisation note: Replace bracketed fields with your organisation’s specific details. Align Clause 2 definitions with the applicable modern award or enterprise agreement. Seek legal review before finalisation.

Evidence, Investigations and the FWC Dispute Process, Employer Playbook

When a right to disconnect complaint reaches the Fair Work Commission, the employer’s preparation, or lack of it, often determines the outcome. Understanding the dispute lifecycle and building an evidence base from day one is essential.

The Complaint Lifecycle

The typical pathway for a right to disconnect dispute follows this sequence:

1. Internal complaint. The employee raises a concern through the employer’s internal process (Clause 7 of the policy template above).
2. Internal investigation. The employer investigates, reviewing contact logs, interviewing the manager, assessing the reasonableness of the contact and the employee’s refusal.
3. Attempted resolution. The parties attempt to resolve the matter internally, potentially through mediation or a facilitated discussion.
4. FWC application. If unresolved, either party may apply to the Fair Work Commission for a determination. The FWC will first attempt conciliation.
5. FWC hearing and decision. If conciliation fails, the FWC may conduct a hearing and make orders, including orders to stop certain conduct.

Evidence Employers Should Gather

The following evidence checklist reflects what the FWC is likely to require, or what will strengthen an employer’s position:

• Contact logs. Date, time, mode (phone/email/SMS/app), sender, recipient and content summary of every after-hours communication.
• Manager’s contemporaneous notes. A brief record of why the contact was made (urgency, operational need, WHS concern).
• Rostering and on-call records. Evidence that the employee was or was not rostered on-call at the time of contact.
• Employment contract, award or enterprise agreement extracts. Clauses specifying ordinary hours, on-call provisions and any after-hours availability expectations.
• Policy documents and training records. The employer’s right to disconnect policy, proof of distribution and records of training provided (dates, attendees, materials).
• Email/SMS/messaging screenshots. Preserved copies of the actual communications, including metadata showing time stamps.
• WHS records. If the contact related to a safety matter, incident reports, hazard notifications or regulatory obligations supporting the urgency.
• Employee response records. Any reply or acknowledgement from the employee, or evidence of no response.

Possible Remedies and Australia Right to Disconnect Penalties

The FWC may make orders directing the employer (or employee) to stop certain conduct. Industry observers expect that remedies will be tailored to the circumstances, for example, requiring the employer to implement or amend a policy, cease specific contact practices, or undertake manager training. Because the right to disconnect is a “workplace right,” an employee who suffers adverse action for exercising it may also bring a general protections claim, which can carry significant penalties under Part 3-1 of the Fair Work Act. Employers should treat every right to disconnect complaint seriously, investigate promptly and act in good faith to resolve matters before they escalate.

Conclusion, Recommended Next Steps for Employers

Employers who want to understand what is the new right to disconnect law in Australia and comply with confidence should take these steps now:

1. Finalise and distribute your right to disconnect policy, use the template clauses above as a starting point and tailor to your workforce, awards and enterprise agreements.
2. Deliver manager training, cover the factors that determine reasonableness, the escalation flowchart and documentation requirements.
3. Audit communication tools and practices, eliminate routine after-hours alerts and implement “delay send” as a default.
4. Build your evidence framework, start maintaining contact logs, rostering records and policy acknowledgements now, not when a complaint arises.
5. Seek legal advice, engage an employment lawyer to review your policy, contracts and dispute-readiness. The Global Law Experts lawyer directory can help you connect with an Australian employment law specialist.

Employers with international workforces managing after-hours communication across borders may also wish to review their employer-sponsored visa obligations in Australia to ensure consistency across employment arrangements.

Last reviewed: 25 June 2026. This article will be updated following significant FWC decisions or changes to Fair Work Ombudsman guidance.

Sources

1. Fair Work Ombudsman, Right to Disconnect
2. Fair Work Commission, What Is the Right to Disconnect
3. Australian Public Service Commission, Guidance on the Right to Disconnect in the Public Sector
4. Small Business NSW, Right to Disconnect Law to Come into Effect
5. Fair Work Ombudsman, Right to Disconnect for Small Business Employees Starts 26 August
6. Holding Redlich, What Employers Need to Know About the New Right to Disconnect
7. King & Wood Mallesons, Preparing for the Right to Disconnect: Practical Tips for Employers
8. Diversity Council Australia, Navigating the Right to Disconnect