Australia’s right to be unavailable came into effect on Monday, officially applying to millions of workers, meaning they are not required to respond to texts, emails or phone calls outside of work hours – unless the refusal is deemed “unreasonable”.
In Austria, this right does not exist, although a phone call from the boss during a holiday can be registered as working time. In this country, the Carinthian Chamber of Labour recently called for a legal regulation to make this right unavailable. The Chamber of Commerce immediately spoke out against it. However, the topic has not yet featured prominently in the political debate in Austria.
In Europe, similar laws have been in force in France since 2017, in Spain since 2018 and in Belgium since 2022. A European law establishing the right not to be available is being discussed in the context of a European legal framework establishing minimum requirements for teleworking.
There is no obligation to be reachable, even with a work mobile phone
Labor attorney Maximilian Turrini of AK recently said: “Employers are generally not allowed to contact their employees who are on vacation or in compensatory time. If the vacation is interrupted by a business phone call or an email, this is considered working time and may not be deducted from the vacation account.”
Owning a mobile phone at work does not oblige employees to be reachable during their free time. “Switching off your business mobile phone during the holidays is not only allowed, but is often a basic requirement to achieve the recreational value that the law also requires,” says Turrini. The Chamber of Commerce said: “A separate law is not necessary, the existing regulations and case law protect employees sufficiently.
The Australian regulations were passed in February. They apply to businesses with more than 15 employees. For smaller businesses, the law is expected to come into effect on August 26, 2025. They will ensure “that people who are not paid 24 hours a day do not have to work 24 hours a day,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on ABC television.
It’s about the mental health of employees
It is also about the mental health of workers, Albanese continued. People need to be able to disconnect from their work and dedicate themselves to their families and their lives. The unions welcomed the law. “Today is a historic day for working people,” said ACTU president Michele O’Neil. In future, they will no longer be subjected to the stress of “having to constantly answer unreasonable phone calls and emails from work.”
However, criticism came from the business community. The reform was “hasty, poorly thought out and very confusing,” according to industry association AI Group. “For employers and employees, it will now be unclear whether they can accept a call outside working hours or make an extra service offer,” the association criticized with regard to the exceptions laid down in the law.
The head of the employment arbitration board, Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth, urged workers and businesses to apply the new legislation with “common sense”. Courts would have to decide how the term ‘unreasonable’ should be defined in the event of a dispute. This would depend on the circumstances: for example, the reason for the employer’s contact outside normal working hours, the employee’s role or the compensation for overtime or on-call time.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
