Does New Zealand need a right to disconnect law? - The Front Page

Should our bosses be legally prevented from reaching us after work? Photo / 123rf

As the world becomes increasingly online, is it time to legislate the right to log off from work at the end of the day?

A growing movement around the world has seen countries introduce “right to disconnect laws”, which would mean that workplaces are not allowed to contact employees after hours unless it is an emergency. The purpose of these laws aim to achieve a better work-life balance in the digital era, when most of us are reachable in some way via our phones.

Australia is one of the most recent countries to join this, passing a bill in February that means employees can refuse work-related communication, as long as the refusal to engage is not unreasonable.

Dr Amanda Reilly, senior lecturer in law at Victoria University of Wellington, told The Front Page how this would work.

“If the employee feels there’s unreasonable contact, then the first thing that they’ve actually got to do is have a discussion with the employer about it. And if it can’t be resolved in the workplace, then it could potentially go to the Fair Work Commission, and they have the jurisdiction to hear the complaint.

“And then if they did think that it was unreasonable, then there’s a potential penalty of $18,000 if the employee successfully raises concerns.”

Reilly imagines that it would need to take repeated concerns over contact to warrant an investigation.

Australia also introduced provisions defining what “unreasonable” contact would be, if there’s compensation for being available, and how the seniority of a position could change communication.

She said that works better than the law introduced by Portugal in 2021, which forbids contact except in an emergency, “and there’s just been a lot of uncertainty about what does emergency actually mean”.

While many of the laws are framed around bosses and senior management not contacting employees, Reilly said that with some workplace cultures, they aren’t always the ones doing the contacting.

“If you’re in a big organisation, it’s not necessarily the top management that is driving it. My employer, as such, is the Victoria University of Wellington. They’ve never specifically contacted me during the weekend. It’s actually my colleagues who do.

“So I think there’s a danger that there’d be a disjunct between at top level, they’ll be saying we want healthy workplace cultures, but there’s not really follow-through on that, so within the organisation, middle managers and people contacting their own colleagues don’t really take it seriously.

“So I think if there is a penalty as a very last resort, that kind of does focus the fact that actually. this is something that needs to be taken seriously and does need to be followed up.”

Asked by The Front Page if a right to disconnect law was on the agenda for this Government, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden said in a statement that the Government is not currently looking at this and the priority for workers is simplifying the Holidays Act and health and safety regulations law.

Listen to the full episode for more on how a right to disconnect law could work here.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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