The right to disconnect now covers every employer in the national system. It started on 26 August 2024 for employers with 15 or more employees, and on 26 August 2025 for small business employers, so the phase-in is complete.
The right is narrower than the headlines suggested. It does not make out-of-hours contact unlawful. It gives employees a right to refuseto monitor, read or respond to contact outside their working hours, unless that refusal is unreasonable. The legal question is never whether the employer should have made contact, but whether the employee's refusal to engage with it was unreasonable.
What the right actually is
An employee may refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact, or attempted contact, outside their working hours unless doing so is unreasonable. It covers contact from the employer and from third parties such as clients, suppliers, staff at other businesses, or members of the public. Contact includes calls, emails, texts, social media and messaging services.
Fair Work Ombudsman, Right to disconnect (content last updated 18 June 2026). The page's own source reference is Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ss.149F, 333M-333Q, 333V, 340-341. Verified 26 July 2026.
When it started
| Employer type | Right to disconnect applies from |
|---|---|
| Non-small business employers (15 or more employees) | 26 August 2024 |
| Small business employers (fewer than 15 employees) | 26 August 2025 |
When counting employees, staff of associated entities are included, and casuals count only if they are engaged on a regular and systematic basis. That is the same small business test used for the redundancy exemption, explained in our small business redundancy guide.
When a refusal is unreasonable
The Act lists factors that must be considered when working out whether a refusal was unreasonable:
- the reason for the contact;
- how the contact is made and how disruptive it is to the employee;
- how much the employee is compensated or paid extra for being available during the period they are contacted, or for working additional hours outside their ordinary hours;
- the employee's role in the business and level of responsibility; and
- the employee's personal circumstances, including family or caring responsibilities.
Other matters may also be considered. One rule is absolute: it is unreasonable to refuse if the contact is required by law.
The compensation factor does a lot of work in practice. If you receive an on-call allowance or a higher rate that expressly accounts for out-of-hours availability, refusing contact is much more likely to be unreasonable. The Ombudsman is explicit that employees who are on call or working overtime can be required to monitor and respond.
Being contacted while on leave
This is the question that matters most for anyone tracking a leave balance, and it deserves an honest answer. The Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance frames the right around working hours and does not separately address periods of annual leave, personal leave or a rostered day off.
Reasoning from the words of the provision, a day of approved annual leave or personal leave is not a period of working hours, so contact during it sits within the scope of the right, and the same five factors decide whether refusing it is unreasonable. A brief question during a two-week holiday from a manager with no alternative looks very different from nightly calls to an employee on sick leave.
What answering does not do is undo your leave. Taking a call while on annual leave does not automatically convert that day back into a working day or restore the leave to your balance. If you are required to perform actual work on a day of leave, that is a conversation to have with your employer about recrediting the leave or paying the time, and any entitlement to be paid for it comes from your award, agreement or contract rather than from the right to disconnect itself. Rostered days off are covered in our RDO guide.
If there is a dispute
Disputes should be discussed at the workplace level first. If that does not resolve it, either party can go to the Fair Work Commission, which can make orders including an order to stop an employee refusing contact, or an order to stop an employer taking certain actions.
The right to disconnect is a workplace right under the general protections, so an employer must not stop an employee exercising it, and taking adverse action against someone for exercising it is separately unlawful. All modern awards now include a right to disconnect clause, and some set out when an employee may be required to respond, for example where an on-call allowance is paid.
A worked example
Tom is a payroll officer at a 40-person firm, working 9am to 5pm, with no on-call allowance and no after-hours component in his pay.
At 8pm on a Wednesday his manager emails a non-urgent question about next month's roster. Tom does not read it until the morning.
Weighing the factors: the reason for contact was not urgent, Tom receives no extra compensation for availability, and his role carries no on-call expectation. His refusal to respond that evening is very unlikely to be unreasonable.
Change one fact. If Tom were paid an on-call allowance that week and the contact concerned a payroll failure that had to be fixed before the bank cut-off, the same refusal could well be unreasonable.
Common questions
Can my employer still contact me after hours?
Yes. The rules do not make out-of-hours contact unlawful. They give you a right to refuse to monitor, read or respond, unless that refusal is unreasonable.
Does it apply while I am on annual leave?
Leave is not working time, so contact during it falls within the scope of the right and the same factors apply. The Ombudsman's guidance does not address leave specifically, so treat this as reasoning from the provision rather than settled guidance.
What if I am on call?
Employees who are on call or working overtime can be required to monitor and respond. How much you are compensated for being available is one of the factors the Act requires to be considered.
Author & reviewer
Sarah has spent over a decade advising Australian SMBs on Fair Work, NES compliance, and payroll. Based in Sydney, she has worked across hospitality, retail and professional services.