2022 - 2023

 

 

 

THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

 

 

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023

 

 

 

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

and

STATEMENT OF COMPATIBILITY WITH HUMAN RIGHTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Circulated by authority of

Adam Bandt MP

Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023

 

 

OUTLINE

 

This Bill amends the Fair Work Act 2009 to prevent employers from contacting employees outside work hours and ensure employees are not required to monitor, read or respond to email, telephone calls or any other kinds of communication from an employer outside their working hours. This is achieved by adding the right to disconnect outside of working hours to the National Employment Standards.

 

FINANCIAL IMPACT

 

The bill will have no financial impact.

 

NOTES ON CLAUSES

 

Clause 1: Short Title

 

This clause provides for the Act to be cited as the Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Act 2023.

 

Clause 2: Commencement

 

This clause provides for the whole of this Act to commence the day after it receives Royal Assent.

 

 

Clause 3: Schedules

 

Schedule 1 - Amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009

 

Item 1: After Paragraph 61(2)(a)

 

Lists ‘the right to disconnect outside of working hours’ as a National Employment Standard. National Employment Standards are minimum standards that apply to the employment of employees.

 

Item 2: After Division 3 of Part 2-2

 

Inserts:

 

Division 3A - Right to disconnect outside working hours

 

64A Right to Disconnect outside of work hours

 

The effect of the new clause is to include the right to disconnect in the National Employment Standards. The new clause states that an employer must not contact an employee outside of the employee’s hours of work unless the reason for the contact is an emergency or genuine welfare matter; or the employee is in receipt of an availability allowance for the period during which the contact is made.

 

The new clause lists activities that an employee is not required to do outside their hours of work, unless they are in receipt of an availability allowance for the relevant period. These activities are monitoring, reading or responding to emails, telephone calls or any other kind of communication from an employer.

 

Availability allowance is explained as an allowance for being rostered, or otherwise directed by an employer, to remain available to perform work during the period.

 

Item 3: In the appropriate position in Schedule 1

 

Inserts:

 

Part 15 - Amendments made by the Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023

 

Defines amending Act as the Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Act 2023 and commencement as the commencement of this part.

 

Clarifies that amendments made by items 1 and 2 of Schedule 1 to the amending Act apply on or after commencement.

STATEMENT OF COMPATIBILITY WITH HUMAN RIGHTS

 

Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023

 

 

This bill is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.

 

Overview of the bill

 

This Bill amends the Fair Work Act 2009 to prevent employers from contacting employees outside work hours and ensure employees are not required to monitor, read or respond to email, telephone calls or any other kinds of communication from an employer outside their working hours. This is achieved by adding the right to disconnect outside of working hours to the National Employment Standards.

 

Human rights implications

 

This bill engages the right to a reasonable limitation of working hours in Article 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

 

 

 

 

Adam Bandt MP