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World Affairs, Polity & Governance
Mahesh

24/02/24 08:15 AM IST

Australia’s ‘right to disconnect,’

In News
  • Recently, Australia enacted the ‘right to disconnect’ to protect its workforce from being penalised or punished for ignoring official communication in the form of calls, messages or emails outside of regular working hours.
Background
  • The last decade saw rapid advancements in digital tools and technologies, making communication possible anytime and anywhere.
  • This opened up endless possibilities for telework and remote work, forever changing the dynamics of the traditional physical workplace.
  • It led to greater flexibility and autonomy for workers by eliminating the need for travel, but also presented new challenges, with people struggling to maintain the boundaries between their personal and professional lives.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to ‘work from home’ further blurred the boundaries as people found it difficult to switch off from work.
  • Workers’ unions have long advocated for the ‘right to disconnect,’ with similar laws already in place in European countries like France.
  • Italy, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Portugal followed suit as the issue gained prominence during the pandemic and people demanded legislative protection to switch off from work without fear of penalty.
Right to disconnect
  • The proposed legislation sought to amend the Fair Work Act, 2009 to prevent employers from contacting employees outside of work hours.
  • 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 receives an availability allowance for the period during which the communication is made.
  • This bill will give people the right to log off when they clock off and to say, unless you’re getting paid for it, your time is your own, and your employer does not have the right to contact you by text, email or phone when you’re enjoying your leisure.
Major provisions
  • An employee can refuse to read or respond to attempted contact from their employer (or any third party related to work) outside the regular working hours unless the “refusal is unreasonable.”
  • “An employee’s refusal to monitor, read or respond to contact, or attempted contact, from their employer, or a third party if the contact or attempted contact relates to their work, will be unreasonable if the contact or attempted contact is required under a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory,”.
  • The law applies to all workers covered by an enterprise agreement which includes the ‘right to disconnect’ term.
  • The Bill outlines several factors to be considered while determining the reasonableness of a refusal of work-related contact.
  • These include the reason and method of contact, the level of disruption caused, the extent of overtime compensation, the nature of a person’s role and level of responsibility, and their circumstances.
  • In the event of a dispute, a worker can escalate the matter to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) if workplace-level discussions fail to resolve the issue.
  • The Commission has the authority to issue an order to stop an employee from refusing contact or to stop an employer from taking action.
Rules in India
  • The Baramati MP first introduced a Private Member’s Bill to this effect in the Lok Sabha in 2018 and has been since lobbying for workers’ rights.
  • The draft highlighted the need to respect the personal life of the employees by recognising their right to disconnect and not respond to their employer’s calls and e-mails, during out-of-work hours.
  • The Bill seeks to recognise the right to disconnect as a way to reduce stress and ease tension between an employee’s personal and professional life.
  • The proposed regulation sought that the government set up digital detox centres and provide digital detox counselling services to citizens for the personal use of digital and communication tools.
  • The Bill, however, lapsed with the end of the tenure of the House.
Source- The Hindu

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