Drafting a Right to Disconnect policy: what good looks like

What the law actually says

Section 333M of the Fair Work Act gives employees the right to refuse out-of-hours contact unless that refusal is unreasonable. Commenced 26 August 2024 for medium/large employers, 26 August 2025 for small business.

Enforced through FWC stop orders. Breach of a stop order is a civil penalty (~$19K per contravention for individuals, ~$93K for corporations).

Reasonableness factors (where the action is)

The Act doesn't ban out-of-hours contact. It puts burden on the contacter to show refusal would be unreasonable. Factors: reason for contact (urgency), how contact is made (call vs SMS vs email), compensation (on-call allowance, executive market salary), employee's role + seniority, personal circumstances.

Policy sections that matter

Purpose + scope. Right to refuse + when. Reasonableness factors listed. Exceptions (emergencies, on-call with allowance, statutory triggers). Manager responsibilities (assess deferability, document reason). Tools + systems (email signature line, DND, scheduled-send, calendar invites in local hours). Escalation pathway (internal → HR → FWC stop order). Annual review.

Common drafting mistakes

1. Blanket bans on out-of-hours contact (unrealistic; staff lose trust)
2. No reasonableness framework (managers don't know how to call it)
3. No on-call mechanism (if you have genuine on-call, distinguish + compensate)
4. No tooling change (policy without changing email signatures is performative)
5. No FWC pathway (signals you don't take stop orders seriously)

Use our Right to Disconnect policy builder for a fitted draft.