Right to Disconnect outside of working hours
| As per Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023: An employer must not contact an employee outside of the employee’s hours of work (including during periods of leave), unless: (a) the reason for the contact is an emergency or a genuine welfare matter; or (b) the employee is in receipt of an availability allowance for the period during which the contact is made. An employee is not required to monitor, read or respond to emails, telephone calls or any other kind of communication from an employer outside of the employee’s hours of work (including during periods of leave) unless the employee is in receipt of an availability allowance for the period during which the communication is made. Support Foundation acknowledges and welcomes the legislation and will be implementing in our policy from April 2024. This legislation will be applicable for all the employees and also to our contractors / sub-contractors. The new right does not stop employers from sending emails / text or phone calls to employees outside of work hours. However, it will form one of the “protected attributes” for the purposes of the General Protections regime in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) and seeks to protect employees who choose to ignore attempts by their employers to contact them after hours (where this is not unreasonable) from being subjected to detriment (e.g. being disciplined for their performance).We recommend employees and contractors to notify the SF management team in writing (email or text) if they are not willing to be contacted outside the working hours so that proper record keeping can be done and act as a “Stop Order”. If a dispute occurs with your line manager regarding “Stop Order”, the issue must be notified to the director for resolution. If employers and employees cannot resolve a dispute about the right to disconnect at the workplace level, then they are able to apply to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for a “Stop Order”. |