Interview with Peter Stefanovic - Sky News First Edition

E&OE Transcript 

PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: The Federal Government's industrial relations reforms are now in effect. From today, employees can refuse to respond to their bosses outside work hours as part of the new right to disconnect laws. The legislation states those who work for companies with more than 15 staff members can refuse to respond to unreasonable after-call hours. It's a big word, that ‘unreasonable’. We'll get to that now with the Employment, Workplace Relations Minister, Murray Watt. Minister, good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning. So business says there's no certainty here which will harm productivity. How do you think you've provided that?

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Well good morning, Pete. In fact, I'm coming to you from Canberra this morning and I'm standing in front of a school that has had this right to disconnect in place for a number of years and this school has continued operating regardless of that right. And I'm sure that businesses will be able to adjust to this change as well.

What this is really about is trying to bring back a bit more work-life balance into people's lives. We all know the benefits that we have from technology, but it has brought some problems with it as well. For example, people being contacted by their boss after-hours, when they're not being paid, and being expected to monitor their phones, their text messages, their emails, and, as I say, at a time when they're supposed to be clocked off and enjoying time with their families. So what this is really about is giving employees a right to not have to be constantly checking those phones and emails, unless if it's unreasonable to do so. And what we said in the legislation is that to work out whether something's unreasonable, you would take into account things like the seniority of an employee. So for example, it would be more reasonable to expect a very senior person in an organisation to be getting in contact with their boss and responding to emails than a really junior person. If it was an emergency situation, it would be more reasonable to expect an employee to return a call than if it was just a run-of-the-mill matter that could wait till the next day to be dealt with. So, we're really encouraging all employers and their workers to have a conversation about what is reasonable in the context of that workplace. And as I say, there's plenty of organisations that have done this already.

PETER STEFANOVIC: It's hard to define that term, though, ‘unreasonable’. I know you've just outlined that and done your best, but, I mean, what an employer thinks is reasonable, employee might think is unreasonable.

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, that's right, Pete, and as I say, that's why the best thing that can be done is for employers and workers to have a conversation about the nature of their workplace; what would be a reasonable thing for employers to be contacting people about after hours, and what wouldn't be? As I say, what this comes back to is the point that people rightly get paid for the hours they work, but they don't get paid once they go home and they clock off for the day. And they shouldn't have to feel like they've got to be constantly connected to their work, even, well after hours, on weekends, late at night, when they're not being paid.

PETER STEFANOVIC: I mean, look, in our industry, yours and mine, we're not going to get far if we abide by those rules. Doesn't it stand to reason that employees who take those calls and those emails after-hours would get further in that company?

MURRAY WATT: Well, as I say, I think it would be reasonable to think that a senior person being highly paid in an organisation would be more likely to be contacted after-hours and would be expected to return those calls. But if we're talking about junior people in organisations that aren't getting paid very highly, you know, let's face it, a lot of the time when the boss gets in contact, it's something that can actually wait to the next day. And what we're asking people to do is just have a bit of respect for people's private life and recognise that they're not being paid after-hours to take those calls. I think it's a bit surprising, Pete, that we've seen Peter Dutton and the Coalition say that they want to abolish this right, if they do get elected. So what they're effectively saying is that employees should be on call 24 hours a day, whether they're getting paid to do so or not.

PETER STEFANOVIC: OK, to another story out of Canberra this morning, Minister, the Aviation whitepaper, it's out today. I know it's a different space to yours, but just on the topic of what's unreasonable; airlines and airports will be made to pay for unreasonable flight delays, clearly the word of the day. So what's unreasonable here?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, Catherine King, the Transport Minister, will have a bit more to say about this later today, Pete, she's obviously had carriage of this. But what we're really trying to do here is to make sure that consumers have more rights than they have up until now. You and I both fly around a lot, lots of your viewers would as well, and it is really frustrating that people have had their flights cancelled a lot, delays constantly, without much information or customer service from the airlines. And it's really about trying to restore a bit more balance to make sure that consumers do have more rights than they currently do. So Catherine will be able to take people through that in a bit more detail today.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Murray Watt, good to have you with us as always. We'll chat to you soon.