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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

T he speech read as follows—

The need to disconnect. The phrase is so relevant to our lives now—it is becoming a mantra. But why is it so hard? Why do so many of us feel the need to constantly juggle the demands of work, during times which should be aside for care, rest, leisure, family and friends.

Evidence from witnesses and submissions to the Senate Inquiry on Work and Care, which I chaired over the past eight months, told us that our constant connection with work has no limits—but has many and varied negative consequences for people's health and relationships.

The issue is clear for many of the researchers, workers and organisations who gave evidence to the Inquiry. For too many Australians, 'availability creep' has taken over.

We heard the impact for people in insecure jobs, where they are constantly waiting for the phone to vibrate—letting them know when their next shift will be and how much money they are likely to earn this week.

If they don't answer, the earnings are foregone, or worse, they may not get offered as many hours the next week—or get offered any more shifts at all.

We heard about late night calls, to come in early the next day or to work from a different site, the need to check apps to pick up available shifts or request changes.

For these workers availability creep is tied to their job insecurity and rostering practices, where workers are effectively on call and need to remain available in order to secure sufficient paid work to get by. Many of these are not paid an 'on call' allowance or any penalty rates for extra hours they work beyond their contracted 'normal' hours.

The inability to disconnect also extends to people in full-time permanent positions, who are constantly checking for texts and emails outside of hours, panicked that they might have missed an important piece of information long after they knocked off for the day.

Laptops taken home to enable flexibility, also allow—and in practise, demand—that tasks be done at all hours.

Many of us have experienced this. That tug of double consciousness: a child's pressing need pitted against a complex issue on the other end of the phone demanding every neurone we can muster. You do not have to be a carer to feel this tug. It still finds plenty of people who just want some quiet time, an uninterrupted run, a life beyond work.

Many workplaces and teams of workers are affected now by a shared culture of availability—feeling that they need to be available to each other outside working time, as well as available to their managers and supervisors. The high level of insecurity in the Australian labour market is a dangerous twin to availability creep: if you feel insecure at work you hesitate to not take a call from work.

The pandemic brought into sharp focus just how tethered we are to our devices and how blurred the line has become between work and leisure or family time. So much so that we now, as a nation, find ourselves working large amounts of unpaid overtime: valued at $93 billion across the economy, an average of 4.5 hours per week for every one of us.

This means an average loss of $315 per fortnight from our pay. The burden is carried disproportionately by young people who perform the most unpaid overtime and also people in full-time work, so many of whom seem to have lost the ability to switch off after hours.

The work we do outside of contracted hours amounts to wage theft. Whether it's answering emails, taking calls or catching up on work over the weekend, it is eating into our leisure and family time to our great detriment.

Evidence provided to the Inquiry showed poor sleep, stress, burnout, degraded relationships and distracted carers are just some of the damage caused by unbounded work.

This pressure felt by workers, particularly when working remotely, has serious implications for mental and physical health and it increases work related stress. This is an issue that came into sharp focus for many during the pandemic, when so many more of us had to juggle work and care responsibilities at home.

This Bill reflects the Greens commitment to see a right to disconnect in employment law. In joining the Greens in a majority Select Committee report, Labor agreed to consider amending the National Employment Standards to create an enforceable right to disconnect.

The recommendation says:

The committee recommends the Australian Government consider amending the Fair Work Act 2009 to include an enforceable 'right to disconnect' under the National Employment Standards, giving all workers a right to disconnect once their contracted working hours have finished and restricting employers from communicating with workers outside of work hours, except in the event of an emergency or for welfare reasons.

This Bill actions that recommendation.

If passed, the Bill would create a law to prevent employers from contacting employees once their contracted hours are finished unless they are paid an on-call allowance, or in exceptional circumstances. This amendment would ensure employees are not required to monitor, read or respond to emails, telephone calls or any other kinds of communication from an employer outside of their paid working hours.

There is of course an exception in the Bill, which would apply in circumstances where it is an emergency or genuine welfare matter, or if the employee is in receipt of an availability allowance for the period in which the contact is made.

The fundamental principle is simple: when your paid hours are done, you can turn your attention elsewhere. You do not have to answer work phone calls, emails or texts about work—unless you're getting paid for it.

This restores integrity to the 'wage-effort bargain' of employment relationship theory and practice, such that contracted working hours are paid.

The right to disconnect will give workers the freedom to switch off and focus on their personal and family lives. It will promote a healthier work culture that benefits workers and employers. Being in control of their time outside of work, and being able to attend to their personal lives, leisure and rest, will mean workers will come to their paid employment with more energy and focus.

The practical enactment of this right will be assisted by a reduction in insecurity in the labour market: without that, this right will be hard to realise for many precarious workers.

I urge the government to support this bill. Our current workplace laws were not drafted at a time when everyone had a smartphone in their pocket and a laptop with internet connecting their kitchen table to their worksite.

It's time to update our standards in this area, as has been done in France, Spain, Ireland and Canada.

Let's bring our workplace laws into the 21st century.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.