This August marks two years since the Right to Disconnect became law for employers with 15 or more employees, and one year since it caught up with small business. There's been plenty written on what the Fair Work Act says. There's been far less on what it actually looks like in practice. Here's what we've seen play out across our client base, and what's worth reviewing.
What the law says
Since 26 August 2024 (non-small business) and 26 August 2025 (small business), employees can refuse to monitor, read or respond to work contact outside their ordinary hours - including contact from clients or customers, unless the refusal is unreasonable. It doesn't stop an employer from making contact. It protects the employee's right not to engage with it.
Whether a refusal counts as unreasonable comes down to a few factors: the reason for the contact, how disruptive it is, whether the person is compensated to be available, their role and seniority, and their personal circumstances. It's a judgement call, not a bright line.
What's happened since it started
The pre-2024 concern was that there was going to be a flood of disputes. That hasn't happened.
The Fair Work Commission has issued no stop orders under the new provisions, and in its own November 2025 decision on the matter, the Full Bench found it had not yet dealt with any test cases or significant disputes under the substantive right and on that basis pushed its scheduled review of the modern award term back roughly 12 months, to around late 2026, judging that a review now "would have little to no utility."
That's useful context if your business has been nervous about this law. It hasn't been a legal minefield - law firm analysis after the first twelve months found the anticipated wave of litigation simply didn't materialise, even once small business came under the same provisions. But low dispute numbers don't mean low impact. The real effect has shown up quietly, in day-to-day communication habits, not in tribunal filings. For the mechanics of how a dispute actually gets resolved, the Fair Work Commission's dispute resolution process sets out the workplace-first, Commission-second pathway.
Where the friction has shown up
- The habitual 9pm email. A manager may send messages whenever suits them at night, genuinely expecting no reply until the following day. Adding “no need to respond tonight" rarely removes the psychological pressure to answer. An easy fix is to use the scheduled-send default function available in emails, not a policy rewrite.
- Genuine on-call versus quiet scope creep. In safety-critical roles, after-hours contact is clear and expected. Friction occurs when "occasional emergency contact" quietly becomes "someone always answers" without an intentional decision or compensation review.
- Group chats that never switch off. WhatsApp or Teams groups run efficiently for rosters, but easily turn into a running after-hours channel. A broadcast message might not be addressed to anyone specifically, but if it’s work-related outside hours, it’s still regarded as work
- Late roster texts to casuals. "Can you cover tomorrow at 7am?" sent at 9:45pm sits right on the edge of the reasonableness test - especially if it becomes an ongoing habit.
- The overcorrection. Managers who swing to the opposite extreme and hold every single message until 9am, creating a massive, overwhelming morning backlog for their team.
What employers should do doing
- Map on-call roles properly. Identify which positions genuinely need regular after-hours contact, and make sure they're compensated for it rather than relying on unspoken expectations.
- Set managers up with scheduled send as the default, not an afterthought.
- Clarify group chat norms. Decide explicitly whether rostering channels are after-hours or business-hours, and communicate that to the team.
- Give casual and shift employees reasonable notice for roster changes, in writing where possible.
- Talk about urgency versus habit. Most after-hours contact creep happens because nobody ever drew the line out loud.
- Get specific advice for irregular rosters. Split shifts, seasonal work and non-standard hours don't fit a generic policy template. Check your Award before assuming one size fits all.
"The businesses handling this well haven't just updated a clause in the handbook," says Jackie Gordon, Director - HR & Events at Dovetail Brand Engagement. "They've changed how managers actually behave, because a well-worded policy next to a manager who still expects instant replies at 8pm doesn't protect anyone. It just creates a gap between what's written down and what's actually expected."
Taking action now
While there hasn’t been a flood of disputes, it doesn’t mean it will never happen in your business.
Now is a good time to review on-call arrangements, after-hours communication habits, rostering practices and your policy, before a quiet expectation becomes a real dispute.
Please contact the team at Dovetail if you'd like us to assist you with this.
