Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday I introduced the right to disconnect bill in the Senate in response to the public's call for better working time regulation in line with the recommendations of the Senate inquiry into work and care. Evidence to the inquiry told us that our constant connection with work has no limits, and it has many and varied negative consequences for people's health and relationships. It affects people in insecure jobs where they're constantly waiting for the phone to vibrate, letting them know when their next shift will be or whether they'll earn enough money this week.

It also affects people in full-time jobs who are expected to check for texts and emails outside of hours, often panicked that they might have missed an important piece of information long after they've knocked off for the day. Laptops taken home to enable flexibility also allow and, in practice, demand that tasks be done at all hours. As a result, as a nation we find ourselves inadvertently working massive amounts of unpaid overtime worth $93 billion across the economy and an average of 4½ hours a week each. This amounts to time theft.

The Greens want to see a right in law to disconnect from work, and Labor has endorsed this position, which was a key recommendation of the majority work and care report. Our bill, if passed, would create a law to prevent employers from contacting employees outside work hours. Our current workplace laws were not drafted at a time when everyone had a smartphone in their back pocket. It's time to update our standards in this area, as has been done in France, Spain, Ireland and Canada. Australia's workplace relations systems need to reflect our 21st-century workforce. Half of them are women. Forty per cent of them have responsibility as a carer while they're at work. They need a barrier between their job and the rest of their lives, and we must introduce limits to working time with a legally protected right to disconnect.