Policy and Guidelines
Principals and managers (including those in central and regional locations) must respect the right of staff to disconnect from work-related communications outside of their working hours. Such communications may include phone calls, emails, texts, social media, and messaging services. The right to disconnect legislation makes explicit that all employees have the right to refuse to monitor, read, listen to or respond to contact that occurs outside their working hours from their employer or a third party (such as a student or a parent), unless that refusal is unreasonable.
The right to disconnect does not prohibit employers from attempting to contact their employees, nor does it prevent employees from contacting one another.
There are factors to help determine whether an employee’s refusal to monitor, read, listen to, or respond to contact is unreasonable. These include:
- the reason for the contact or attempted contact
- the method of contact and level of disruption it causes the employee
- how much the employee is compensated or paid extra for:
- being available to perform work outside their working hours;
- working additional hours outside their ordinary hours of work
- the nature of the employee’s role and the employee’s level of responsibility, and
- the employee’s personal circumstances (including family or caring responsibilities).
This list is not an exhaustive list, and other factors can also be considered.
Principals and managers should exercise judgement and weigh up all the relevant factors before contacting an employee outside of their working hours if they are requesting a response.
Subject to the considerations set out above, contact may be reasonable if it relates to matters that are urgent or time sensitive and cannot reasonably wait until the particular employee returns to work, such as in the case of an emergency or critical incident, notifying employees of timetable or roster changes, conducting welfare checks for employees, or confirming an employee’s return to work arrangements.
Setting expectations and planning
Principals and managers should discuss the new out of hours contact laws with their staff and set expectations consistent with the principles set out in these guidelines. Note that the right to disconnect applies to contact outside of an employee’s working hours, rather than the ordinary hours of duty for all employees.
Principals and managers should consider whether any particular communication is necessary outside of an employee’s working hours. Where communication is made outside of an employee’s working hours, principals and managers should have regard to an employee’s personal circumstances (including family and/or caring responsibilities).
Examples
| A year level coordinator in a secondary school is routinely contacted by phone and text out of working hours and during periods of leave by parents. This staff member finds the volume of contact to be intrusive when spending time with their family but feels there is an expectation they respond to any contact from parents no matter what the circumstances or time of day. | It is not reasonable for parents to expect a response from the staff member on non-urgent matters. It would be reasonable in this circumstance for the staff member to respond only to matters that they consider cannot wait until the next workday. |
| A principal of a primary school with 30 employees, contacts employees by email outside the school day. The principal does not expect a response and includes a sign off on her email signature indicating that is the case. | Where a principal contacts another employee at a time that suits them about non-urgent matters this should be made clear, including that there is no need to respond. |
| An employee is absent on parental leave and is due to return to work next term. Their principal contacts them during the leave period to confirm their return to work and advise of their duties on their return. | While generally an employee has the right to disconnect during a period of leave, in this circumstance it is reasonable for the principal to contact them and to expect that they respond. It is reasonable that the response would occur at a time which suits the employee’s personal and family circumstances. The right to disconnect would not apply given it is reasonable for the employer to confirm a return to work and there is not an ongoing or unreasonable expectation of an immediate response. |
| An education support class range 2 maintenance person is responsible for the keys to the storage shed. They have accidentally taken both sets of keys home and the principal needs to access the shed as a matter of urgency. They are contacted to have the keys collected. | Although they hold a position at a level where refusal to engage outside their working hours would be reasonable, it is considered that refusing contact in this circumstance would be unreasonable as there was a genuinely urgent operational need to do so. |
| A classroom teacher on a school camp, who is required for student supervision ratios, is contacted at midnight by the teacher in charge of the camp to manage an issue with an unwell student. The teacher has to return to duty to handle this matter. | As a teacher on a school camp is compensated for remaining on-call/ on duty with payments and time in lieu, it would be unreasonable for the teacher to refuse the contact from the teacher in charge. |
Grievances and disputes
In the event there is a dispute about whether an employee’s refusal of contact is unreasonable, principals, managers and employees must try to resolve the dispute between them at the school level. If they cannot, a principal or manager, or employee (or a person or industrial association representing them) will be able to apply to the Fair Work Commission (the Commission) to resolve the dispute.
The Commission will be able to make an order, or deal with the dispute as it considers appropriate. This may include dispute resolution by mediation, conciliation, making a recommendation, or expressing an opinion. If both parties agree, the Commission may arbitrate the dispute.
The Commission will be able to make orders to stop employees from unreasonably refusing contact; or to stop employers adversely treating an employee or requiring them to continue to accept work-related contact (when an employee’s refusal is not unreasonable).
Employees’ right to reasonably refuse to respond to employer or work-related contact (or attempted contact) out of hours is a workplace right, so the general protections in the Fair Work Act 2009 will apply.
Reviewed 22 October 2024
