What happens if Dutton rolls back Right to Disconnect laws?

The Right to Disconnect has been in place across the Australian workplace since 26 August 2024 for non-small businesses, offering employees the ability to break away from work.

Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, has previously vowed to repeal the Right to Disconnect laws, which came into place in conjunction with the “Closing Loopholes” laws.

As previously reported on HR Leader, the Right to Disconnect (RTD) means that employees of non-small businesses (a business employing 15 or more employees) now have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact (or attempted contact) outside of their working hours unless that refusal is unreasonable.

The aim of the law is to offer employees a pathway towards really detaching from the bindings of their jobs and flourishing in their lives outside of work. Despite this, however, during its implementation, many employers were extremely disgruntled with the laws.

Employment Hero chief executive Ben Thompson argued that regulations such as the RTD can severely impact the viability of starting a business.

“This situation raises critical questions about the viability of starting and running a business in Australia. Beyond the debates and political manoeuvres, the real impact on employers and Australia’s position in the global employment market seems to be an afterthought,” he said.

“The Right to Disconnect law, for instance, adds to the compliance burdens, despite its intentions, contributing to a landscape that seems increasingly hostile to business owners.”

Some employers may, therefore, rejoice at the news that Dutton plans to scrap the laws if successful in the upcoming election, arguing that the RTD would only exacerbate productivity issues.

“If you think it’s OK to outsource your industrial relations or your economic policy to the Greens, which is what the Prime Minister is doing, then we are going to see a continuation of the productivity problem in our country,” said Dutton via the ABC.

“And as the Reserve Bank governor pointed out, if you don’t address it, you’ll see interest rates continue to climb or you’ll see them stay higher for longer.”

Clayton Utz partner and workplace relations expert Saul Harben, however, believes that the RTD hasn’t caused as much disruption as previously forecast, saying most have implemented strategies around it in a sensible way.

“Since the commencement of the Right to Disconnect laws, we’ve seen very little workplace disputation concerning employees exercising a right to disconnect. A number of our clients have introduced policies to manage the right to disconnect in a sensible way,” said Harben.

“While it attracted a lot of commentary at the time it was introduced, we anticipate the laws have not caused significant problems for employers and employees.”

Harben believes that the unions and employees will not simply roll over to the roll-back of the RTD.

“It will be interesting to see if employees and unions will strongly resist the proposed abolition of the right to disconnect,” he said.

“If the law is abolished, some employers may maintain policies around the RTD if they believe they are delivering a benefit to their employees by allowing them an opportunity to not be disturbed while they are away from work.”