The “right to disconnect” and the tech sector

The tech sector is of course well-connected in that tech firms are often highly collaborative and tech employees readily contactable.  But a top frustration for developers and software engineers (etc) is also late-night (or early morning) calls relating to outages and other tech problems.  Enter an additional complexity: the Australian government’s “right to disconnect” legislation. 

Unless it would be unreasonable for an employee to do so, the legislation enables employees to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact (or attempted contact) from their employer (or third parties related to their work – eg clients or suppliers) if that contact is outside of the employee’s working hours.  This will of course have implications for all Australian employers, but it will, we suspect, raise nuanced questions for the well-connected and collaborative philosophy within the tech sector. Indeed, one implication may be the role tech firms can play in ensuring applications continue to support productive working from home and flexible work, while ensuring employees (and all users) have the time and capacity to “disconnect”.

With this in mind, HSF’s market-leading Employment Law team has provided some general guidance in the following article: “The right to disconnect - practical tips and key learnings for employers”.  If you need any assistance navigating these novel and complex provisions, please of course get in touch with your usual HSF contact.