Right to Disconnect Australia: What Small Business Must Know
Your employees can now legally ignore your texts after hours. That’s not a criticism it’s the law.
The right to disconnect has applied to large employers since 26 August 2024. From 26 August 2025, it covers small businesses with fewer than 15 employees too. It’s already in effect, and it applies to every employer in the national Fair Work system.
What the Law Actually Says
Employees now have the right to refuse to monitor, read, or respond to contact outside their working hours unless that refusal is unreasonable.
That contact includes calls, emails, texts, messaging apps, and social media. It also covers contact from third parties like clients and suppliers, not just the employer directly.
The law does not stop employers from reaching out. You can still send the message. What you can’t do is expect a response or penalize an employee who doesn’t give one.
What Makes a Refusal “Unreasonable”
This is the part that actually matters in practice. The Fair Work Act lists factors that must be considered when deciding whether an employee’s refusal was unreasonable.
Those factors include the reason for the contact and how urgent it is, how disruptive the contact is to the employee, the employee’s role and level of responsibility, whether the employee is compensated for being available after hours, and the employee’s personal circumstances including family or caring responsibilities.
A manager texting about tomorrow’s roster at 9pm is unlikely to make refusal unreasonable. A safety officer being called about a site emergency almost certainly would.
The Payroll Angle Nobody Is Talking About
This is the part most other articles miss entirely. It’s also the part most relevant to your payroll.
If an employee receives an after-hours message and actually responds reads it, acts on it, logs into Xero, fixes a file, confirms a roster change that may count as work time. And if it counts as work time, it carries payroll consequences: overtime entitlements, casual loading implications, and super contributions on those additional earnings.
You can’t have it both ways. If you expect employees to act on after-hours contact, that time needs to be recorded, approved, and paid correctly. If you don’t want the payroll consequences, don’t expect the after-hours response.
What You Can Still Do
The right to disconnect does not shut down your business after 5pm. Some legitimate after-hours contact is still fine.
Notifying an employee of urgent repairs that affect tomorrow’s work, recalling a critical staff member during an actual emergency, confirming a return-to-work arrangement these are the kinds of contact that can be reasonable depending on the circumstances.
What shifts is the expectation attached to that contact. Reaching out for something genuinely urgent is still allowed. Expecting routine admin responses at 10pm is not.
What to Fix in Your Business Now
Have a direct conversation with your team. The Fair Work Ombudsman specifically recommends this. Set out when after-hours contact is appropriate, what counts as urgent, and what the expectations are in plain language, not just a policy document.
Check your employment contracts. If contracts specify ordinary hours clearly, it’s easier to assess what falls inside and outside those hours. Vague arrangements create disputes.
Look at who is actually sending after-hours messages. In small businesses, it’s usually managers or owners who do this habitually. That habit now carries compliance and payroll risk.
Set up a way to record after-hours work if it happens. If an employee does respond and works after hours, that time needs to be captured both to pay it correctly and to protect the business if a dispute arises later.
Don’t penalize employees who don’t respond. Taking action formal or informal against an employee for exercising their right to disconnect is a general protections breach under the Fair Work Act.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this apply to my business if I have fewer than 15 staff? Yes. From 26 August 2025, the right to disconnect applies to all employers in the national Fair Work system, regardless of size.
Can I still contact employees after hours? Yes. The law doesn’t stop you from reaching out. It gives employees the right to refuse to respond if the contact is unreasonable.
What if an employee responds and does work after hours? That time may count as work. You’ll need to record it, pay it correctly, and factor in any overtime or loading entitlements.
What happens if there’s a dispute? Parties must first try to resolve it at the workplace level. If that fails, either side can apply to the Fair Work Commission, which can issue orders.
Keep Your Payroll Watertight Talk to Edulink
After-hours work, overtime records, and award entitlements all connect. Getting the payroll right means capturing the right hours, not just the scheduled ones.
Edulink Payroll Services charges $750 per employee, per year, covering payroll, compliance, and reporting, for small and medium businesses across greater Sydney and Campbelltown.
Have more employees? Call us for a discounted rate.
📞 Call us today: 04 044 71 816
Edulink Payroll Services | Campbelltown & Greater Sydney | Call 04 044 71 816
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