Australia now has a “right to disconnect” law. Employees have no obligation to their company to respond to emails, calls, or any messaging outside of regular work hours, outside of situations where that may be deemed “unreasonable.”
This doesn’t mean people have stopped the intrusion of work into their private lives. The “unreasonable” part relies on various factors, like the employee’s role within the company and personal circumstances. But failure to comply could mean the company has to pay fines.
Twenty European and Latin American countries have enacted similar laws to protect work-life balance in recent years. A similar bill proposed in California stalled out last spring, though, after business groups came out against it.
