Australians now have the right to ignore work calls and emails during free time

Today is a historic day for working people,

The ‘right to disconnect’ laws are rushed, poorly thought out and deeply confusing,

We want to make sure that just as people don't get paid 24 hours a day, they don't have to work for 24 hours a day,

Before we had digital technology there was no encroachment, people would go home at the end of a shift and there would be no contact until they returned the following day,

The laws came literally and figuratively out of left field, were introduced with minimal consultation about their practical effect and have left little time for employers to prepare,

We encourage workplace participants to educate themselves on the right to disconnect and take a commonsense approach to applying it within their workplace,

Having a measure that restores to some extent the boundary between people's work and non-work lives is a positive thing, certainly for employees but also for employers,

At the very least, employers and employees will now be uncertain about whether they can take or make a call out of hours to offer an extra shift,

I think it’s actually really important that we have laws like this,

Australian workers now have a right to disconnect, which is really awesome. Not all employers but some employers have completely blurred or crossed over those boundaries and are expecting people to be connected and answer their emails and look at their phones 24/7 and that is just not on,

We really welcome the fact that it’s now a right for workers in law in Australia, and that is important because the simple principle should apply, that you should be paid for all the work you do,

There are often countries that have lower working hours… like France with its 35-hour work week. That’s been kind of criticised a bit… but it’s actually been a contributing factor that led France to have quite good productivity outcomes,

[The ... The law] will hopefully stimulate conversation around what is reasonable and unreasonable contact outside work hours,

These laws put Australia's competitiveness at risk by adding more cost and complexity to the challenge of doing business, and that means less investment and fewer job opportunities,

There’s been some studies in Australia that indicate that technology had the effect of eroding people’s boundaries between people’s work lives and their non-work lives,

I have a very hard time disconnecting and even though I may not necessarily be logged on, my brain is constantly working overtime,

The new laws will give workers greater protections around workplace conditions, job security, and their ability to balance work and life,

What we are simply saying is that someone who isn’t being paid 24 hours a day shouldn’t be penalised if they’re not online and available 24 hours a day,

The combined effect of the government’s new laws, including new definitions for casual employees and independent contractors, will increase red tape and union power, while reducing productivity and hitting our economy at the worst possible time,

I worked in private tutoring when I was in China,

The right to disconnect will also enable an employee to refuse to monitor, read or respond to work-related contact, or attempted contact, from a third party,

What's not acceptable is for people to be taking constant calls or constant emails with an expectation that they're going to be monitoring and responding, when they're not getting paid to do it,

It will actually encourage discussion around what kind of contact is already happening and why is that contact happening. Why are employers contacting their employees outside of their work hours – is that essential? And hopefully, it will lead to a reduction in that unnecessary contact,

It’s so easy to make contact, common sense doesn’t get applied anymore,

The union movement has won the legal right for Australians to spend quality time with their loved ones without the stress of being forced to constantly answer unreasonable work calls and emails,

For many Australians, I think they’re getting frustrated that they’re expected to be on their phones, their emails, all of that, for 24 hours a day,

What is reasonable or unreasonable is going to depend on the individual circumstances and that uncertainty is part of the difficulty that industry is really grappling with at the moment,

It simply protects employees from being obliged to respond or to reciprocate contact,

If you’re an employee, and you’re getting notifications outside of hours, and they’re causing you stress or anxiety, the law doesn’t actually cover that. That’s something you’re going to have to figure out yourself,

Australian unions have reclaimed the right to knock off after work,

So for instance, if your worker goes home at five o’clock, they’re within their right to mute their notifications work. If those notifications, if you can overpower that mute and send that message to the employee, maybe the negotiation around that would be, ‘I won’t do this unless it’s important’,

There’s always a balance between personal responsibility and the responsibility of the organisation,

They’re often so busy in their work day that they can’t do everything they need to do within those hours. So I think it’s incumbent upon employers to think about how they can schedule work activities most effectively,