Australia: Employees no longer have to be reachable after work

Many Australians are now allowed to switch off at the end of the working day in the truest sense of the word. A new law gives millions of employees the right to be unavailable to their superiors during their free time – and to refuse to respond to attempts to contact them. The so-called “Fair Work Legislation Amendment” was passed by Parliament in February.

Employees in medium and large companies can now switch off their mobile phones after work and no longer have to respond to emails. For employees in companies with fewer than 15 employees, the new rules will not come into force for a year. But there are exceptions – for example, when ignoring contact attempts is inappropriate, especially in the case of a work-related emergency, as broadcaster 9News reported.

More time for the family “We want to make sure that people who are not paid 24 hours a day don’t have to work 24 hours a day,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an interview with Australian broadcaster ABC. “It’s also a mental health issue, because it’s about people being able to step away from their work and get back to their family and their lives.”

Australia with poor work-life balance

Studies have previously shown that the work-life balance in Australia is worse than in many other countries, media reports said. Similar laws already exist in around 25 countries, said John Hopkins from the Faculty of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University.

What rules apply in Germany? With clearly defined working hours, an employee in Germany does not have to be reachable outside of working hours. However, there are exceptions. The classic: on-call duty. Here, employees must be reachable and ready to start work, either from home or on site. Managers may have a contractual secondary obligation to be reachable outside of traditional working hours.