Right to disconnect Australia

Right to Disconnect Australia 2026: What Small Businesses Must Know

What Is Right to Disconnect?

From 26 August 2025, your employees have a legal right.

They can refuse to monitor, read, or respond to work contact outside working hours. Unless that refusal is “unreasonable.”

This applies to:

Emails sent at 9 pm
Slack messages on weekends
Phone calls during holidays
Texts from managers or clients

Your employees can legally ignore them. You can’t discipline them for it.

Who Does This Apply To?

All Australian employees. No exceptions.

Small businesses (fewer than 15 employees) can’t opt out. The law applies to you starting 26 August 2025.

It covers contact from:

Your managers
Your clients
Your suppliers
Anyone work-related

If a customer texts an employee on Sunday asking for a status update, the employee can refuse. That’s their right.

The “Reasonableness” Test

Employees can refuse UNLESS the refusal is unreasonable.

What’s reasonable to expect:

Emergency situations (safety risk, critical system down)
On-call arrangements (documented and paid)
Scheduled on-call shifts
Work explicitly agreed to happen outside hours

What’s NOT reasonable:

“Quick payroll question” at 8:30 pm
Weekly status updates on Saturday morning
Roster approvals on Sunday
Casual Slack messages about Monday’s workload

The law doesn’t ban after-hours contact. It bans UNREASONABLE contact.

The catch? Your business must prove the contact was reasonable. Not the employee.

Payroll & Time Recording Impact

Here’s where this gets complicated for payroll teams.

If you contact an employee outside hours and they do work, you must pay them. Even if it’s 15 minutes of work.

Example: You send a Slack message Friday at 6 pm. The employee responds Monday morning (within working hours). No payment needed. Contact was outside their hours, but work wasn’t done outside hours.

But: You send a message Friday at 6 pm. The employee responds at 9 pm and fixes a payroll issue. You owe payment for that 30 minutes.

Your timesheets must capture this. Your payroll software must record it.

What Small Businesses Need to Do

Step 1: Create a policy

Document when after-hours contact is acceptable:

Emergency situations (define what counts)
On-call staff (specify who, when, how much pay)
No casual messaging outside hours

Make it clear: Staff can refuse unreasonable contact.

Step 2: Change your behavior

Stop the habit of:

Late-night Slack messages
Weekend roster changes
Sunday “quick questions”
8 pm payroll clarifications

Batch your communications. Send them during working hours.

Step 3: Track after-hours work

If someone works outside hours:

They must record it (timesheet, note, email)
You must pay them
You must include it in payroll

No “quick chats that don’t count.” If it’s work, it’s paid.

Step 4: Update your payroll software

Your system must track:

Standard work hours per employee
After-hours work when it occurs
Payment calculated correctly
Records kept for compliance

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Assuming your policy covers it

A policy alone doesn’t protect you. You must change actual behavior. Managers still sending late messages = non-compliance.

Mistake 2: Ignoring 15-minute chunks

“Just a quick email” outside hours = paid work. Add it up across employees, and it’s real money.

Mistake 3: No record of after-hours contact

If you contact someone outside hours and they do work, document it. Timesheet notation, email, chat log. Proof matters if there’s a dispute.

Mistake 4: Forgetting on-call arrangements

On-call staff can be expected to respond. But it must be documented, scheduled, and paid (either as allowance or hourly).

Get Ready Before 26 August 2025

Time is running out. Deadline is 26 August 2025.

Action steps:

Review your current after-hours contact practices
Create a formal policy
Train your team (managers especially)
Update payroll systems to track after-hours work
Communicate the policy to all staff

In Campbelltown and Greater Sydney, we help small businesses implement right-to-disconnect compliance.

📞 Call: 04 044 71 816

We’ll review your current practices, create a policy, and ensure your payroll system handles after-hours work correctly.