Right to disconnect
Employees have the right to refuse employer or third-party contact outside working hours in some circumstances.
On this page:
- About the right to disconnect
- Discussing out of hours contact
- Right to disconnect in awards and agreements
- Resolving disputes
- Protections
- Tools and resources
- Related information
About the right to disconnect
Employees have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact, or attempted contact, outside their working hours unless doing so is unreasonable. This includes contact or attempted contact from an employer or a third party.
Contact can include using a range of communication channels such as calls, emails, texts, social media and messaging services.
Third parties can include clients, suppliers, staff from other businesses, or members of the public.
The right to disconnect has applied from:
- 26 August 2025 for employees of small business employersA small business employer is an employer with fewer than 15 employees at a particular time. If an employer has 15 or more employees at a particular time, they are no longer a small business employer. When counting the number of employees, employees of associated entities of the employer are included. Casual employees are not included unless engaged on a regular and systematic basis.
- 26 August 2024 for employees of non-small business employersA non-small business employer is an employer with 15 or more employees at a particular time. When counting the number of employees, employees of associated entities of the employer are included. Casual employees aren’t included unless they’re engaged on a regular and systematic basis..
The right to disconnect rules don't make out of hours contact unlawful. Instead, they give employees a right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to the contact, unless doing so is unreasonable.
It's important to remember that the focus is on whether the employee's refusal was unreasonable.
Awards and agreements can include additional right to disconnect provisions. Learn more at right to disconnect in awards and agreements.
Tip: Help for small business
Watch our video series, including our Right to disconnect and small business video, to understand the rules and how they apply to small business.
When a refusal is unreasonable
When working out whether an employee’s refusal is unreasonable, the following factors must be considered:
- the reason for the contact
- how the contact is made and how disruptive it is to the employee
- how much the employee is compensated or paid extra for:
- being available to perform work during the period they’re contacted, or
- working additional hours outside their ordinary hours of work
- the employee’s role in the business and level of responsibility
- the employee’s personal circumstances, including family or caring responsibilities.
Other matters may also be considered.
It will be unreasonable for an employee to refuse to read, monitor or respond if the contact or attempted contact is required by law.
Example: Employee’s personal circumstances may make refusing contact reasonable
Selim is a consultant and is working on a major project for a client. Selim has 2 young children. He has flexible working arrangements and his working hours are 7.30 am to 4 pm so that he can pick up his children from daycare.
At 4.30 pm on a Tuesday afternoon, Selim’s supervisor, Ava, is copied into an urgent email to Selim from the client. Ava considers whether to contact Selim and ask him to action the client’s request. It’s urgent and Selim is very familiar with this client’s work. However, Ava knows that Selim is on his way to pick up his children and it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to deal with the request.
Ava asks another consultant to help the client and will update Selim when he returns to work. Ava’s decision is appropriate given Selim’s family responsibilities and the fact that another employee could resolve the issue.
Example: Employee is compensated for reasonable out of hours contact
Elizabeth is an associate at a small architecture firm where she usually works 8.30 am to 5 pm.
Elizabeth has been asked to fill in for her manager who is taking 3 months leave. During this period, Elizabeth will need to lead the delivery of a project for a major client. She is receiving extra pay while acting in her manager’s role.
Her supervising partner, Devi, has let Elizabeth know that a reasonable amount of out of hours contact and work will be required during her acting period to deliver the project. She is also told that this has been factored into her higher pay.
Devi gives her a copy of the firm’s policy on out of hours contact and asks if she has any questions.
In her second week in the role, Elizabeth leaves work at 5 pm. Shortly after, Devi finds out that Elizabeth’s team needs to urgently provide the client with additional documents for the project by 10 am tomorrow. It will take around 3 hours to prepare the documents. Devi tries to call Elizabeth on her personal mobile and sends her a text message explaining the situation.
Elizabeth doesn’t answer the calls as she’s about to go to the gym and then run some errands. She reads the full message at 8 pm but decides that it’s too late to respond to Devi. Based on the circumstances, Elizabeth’s refusal to monitor or respond to Devi’s contact could be unreasonable.
Discussing out of hours contact
Employers and employees are encouraged to discuss out of hours contact and set expectations that suit the workplace and the employee’s role.
Go to Discussing the right to disconnect, to:
- read our tips for discussing out of hours contact
- watch our videos for small business on how to have conversations in the workplace and avoid problems.
Myth: An employee who is on call or working overtime doesn’t need to answer calls as they have a right to disconnect
Employees can be required to monitor, answer or respond to calls when working overtime or when on call. Check the rules that apply to your situation.
Right to disconnect in awards and agreements
Awards, enterprise agreements and other registered agreements can include additional right to disconnect provisions.
Check your award
All awards include a right to disconnect clause.
Some awards have rules about when an employee may be required to monitor, read or respond to contact (or attempted contact) from the employer outside their working hours. For example, when an employee is paid an on-call allowance and the contact is to give notice of or recall the employee to work.
Find tailored information in your award by using our industry filter:
If your award isn't in this list, you can find it in our list of awards.
Check your agreement
If you're covered by an enterprise agreement, check the terms of your agreement for information about the right to disconnect. To find an enterprise agreement, go to the Fair Work Commission’s website.
Resolving disputes
Disputes about an employee’s right to disconnect should first be discussed at the workplace level.
If that isn’t successful, employees or employers can go to the Fair Work Commission (the Commission) to deal with the dispute. The Commission can make orders or deal with the dispute in other ways. This includes making orders to stop an employee from refusing contact or to stop an employer from taking certain actions.
You can read more on the Commission’s website at Right to disconnect disputes.
Tip: We’re different from the Fair Work Commission
A reminder that the Commission is the national workplace relations tribunal and registered organisations regulator.
We’re the Fair Work Ombudsman. Our role is to give you advice and assistance on workplace laws.
Learn more about the difference between us (the Fair Work Ombudsman) and the Fair Work Commission.
Protections
An employer must not stop an employee from using their right to disconnect.
The right to disconnect is a workplace right under general protection laws. These laws are protected rights employees have under the Fair Work Act.
Source reference for page: Fair Work Act 2009 sections 149F, 333M–333Q, 333V, 340–341
Tools and resources
- Right to disconnect videos for small business
- Maximum weekly hours fact sheet
- Record My Hours app
- Australian Public Service Commission – Guidance on the right to disconnect in the public service sector
- Fair Work Commission – Understanding the right to disconnect video
- Fair Work Commission – Right to disconnect fact sheet
