Greens call for Australian employees’ right to ignore bosses’ calls and emails after work

The Greens have called for employees to have the right to ‘switch off’ after work and ‘roster justice’, giving casual workers more control over working hours, amid new changes to industrial relations laws.

The party, which maintains the balance of power in the Senate, laid out its industrial reform agenda for Australia ahead of ongoing Labor government reforms next year.

It comes as the Labor’s Secure Jobs Better Pay Bill, the biggest labor law changes in 20 years, passed last week, with the goal of “getting wages moving.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt (pictured with wife Claudia Perkins) said workers’ rights to disconnect from work will help them balance life, work and care responsibilities.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said nine news Workers’ rights to disconnect from their work will help them balance life, work, and caregiving responsibilities.

‘One of the big pressures is the requirement many employers have that people be available after hours to check phones, answer emails, answer texts. It is bleeding into people’s lives and it is time to stop,” he said.

Members of the Queensland Teachers Union recently supported the right to ignore calls or emails from parents or colleagues outside of working hours so that they are included in their business agreements.

The National Union for Tertiary Education voted in favor of a similar arrangement for staff at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

The Financial Sector Union is also pushing for the rules to be included in the business agreements between Westpac and the National Australia Bank.

“There has been a welcome movement at the negotiation level of people who have managed to negotiate a right to disconnect from their agreements. We want it to become a national standard and enshrined in law so that everyone has the right…to unplug when they’re done working,” Mr. Bandt said.

Bandt said workers’ rights to disconnect from work will help them balance life, work and caregiving responsibilities.

The Green leader also wants to give casual workers a break with a ‘roster justice’ deal, where workers would have more control over their hours.

The move would allow casuals to have a clear and secure list with more say over their hours.

The Senate Work and Care Committee heard last October that casual work was ideal for giving these employees a flexible work life, but they also faced a “highly unpredictable environment.”

He recommended that the law be changed to ensure rosters are “predictable, stable, and centered around fixed shift scheduling.”

The Senate Committee also said that the right to pull the plug should be included in the Fair Labor Act.

Bandt said the government will need to work with the Greens, who have 12 senators, after the party seized the balance of power in the Senate in federal elections last May.

The Green leader also wants to give casual workers a break with a ‘roster justice’ deal, where workers would have more control over their hours.