Right to Disconnect extends to small businesses from 26 August

From 26 August 2025, the ‘Right to Disconnect’ will be available to employees of small business employers, being employers with less than 15 employees, on a headcount. The right to disconnect mechanism has had application in larger workplaces for the past year.

In 2024, the Fair Work Commission varied every Modern Award to include the model right to disconnect clause, now appearing within the ‘Hours of Work’ section of each award. The right to disconnect mechanism entitles an employee to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact, or attempted contact, from their employer (or a third party) outside of the employee’s working hours, unless the refusal is unreasonable. In assessing whether an employee’s refusal is unreasonable, regard must be had for criteria such as how the attempted contact is made; the level of disruption caused; whether the employee receives additional compensation for being disturbed; and the personal circumstances of the employee.

Importantly, employers can lawfully continue to contact employees outside of ordinary hours regarding emergency roster changes (e.g. covering unexpected staff absences), and it remains permissible to engage an employee on an arrangement which appropriately compensates them for being contactable outside of working hours (e.g. on-call, call-back, stand-by, etc).

Where a dispute arises as to an employee’s right to disconnect and it cannot be resolved at the workplace level, either an employer or an employee may apply to the FWC for “an order to stop refusing contact or to stop taking certain actions”, or for the FWC to otherwise deal with the dispute. An employee’s right to disconnect is also enshrined as a workplace right, meaning the general protections jurisdiction can be enlivened where an employee believes they have suffered adverse action (e.g. disciplinary action, termination of employment, etc) because they exercised their right to disconnect.

Refinements to casual conversion

Also coming into effect for casual employees employed by small business employers from 26 August 2025 are refinements to the pathway for conversion to permanent employment. These minor changes (which have applied to larger employers since 26 February) are likely to have little impact on small businesses who, since September 2021, have remained exempt from making formal offers of conversion to casual employees. The ability to seek conversion to permanent employment will continue to be driven by the employee from 26 August 2025, with employers obliged to respond in writing to formal notifications from a casual employee but not required to actively make offers of conversion to permanent employment.

Small business employers can familiarise themselves with the upcoming changes with our fact sheet, ‘Casual Employment & Conversion – Small Business Employers’, accessible in your online account.

Subscribers who have questions about their obligations in relation to the right to disconnect, or casual employment generally, are invited to contact our advice line on (07) 3220 3500 for assistance.