Interview with Sarah Abo and Charles Croucher - Today Show
E&OE Transcript
SARAH ABO, HOST: Well this morning right to disconnect laws kick in across the country, giving Aussies the legal right to ignore work related contact after hours.
CHARLES CROUCHER, HOST: For more, let's bring in Employment Minister Murray Watt, who is in Canberra this morning. Minister, good morning to you.
MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: G'day, Charles. G'day, Sarah.
CHARLES CROUCHER: So, just how will these new laws work in a society that is so well connected at the moment?
MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Yeah well, what these laws really are about is trying to bring back a bit of work-life balance for Australians' lives. I think we've all grown used to having technology interrupt our lives, whether we're at work or after work. And from today, all medium and large-sized businesses, workers in those businesses will have a right to disconnect. And what that's about is basically saying that when you clock off from work, your time is your own. You shouldn't have to be doing unpaid overtime by having to constantly check your phone, your email, and that you won't be punished by your boss if you don't respond immediately.
I think we all understand that there are going to be times when an employer does need to get in contact with an employee after-hours urgently, but it shouldn't be the norm. And that's what this right is about, is making sure that people aren't racking up lots of unpaid overtime, working in their time that they're not being paid and being able to get back to their family, to their loved ones, to their sport, whatever it is that they want to do after work without the fear of being punished if they're not checking their emails and their phones.
SARAH ABO: All right, so where do you draw the line? I mean, what's considered reasonable, what's considered unreasonable? It's not like you can just ignore your boss.
MURRAY WATT: No, not altogether, Sarah. And what we said in the legislation is that the way this will work is that employees are not required to be monitoring and responding to emails and phone calls and things like that, unless if doing so would be unreasonable. And the kind of things that the Fair Work Commission would take into account - if it ever got to the tribunal - would be the seniority of someone's position. Of course, if someone's holding a very senior role in an organisation, it's more likely that they'll need to be able to deal with things after-hours than a very junior person. If it's an emergency situation, then of course it would be expected that someone would respond in that situation. But if it's just a run-of-the-mill thing that could be replied to and dealt with the next day when someone's back at work, then it can wait till then. And it's about really trying to overcome that situation where people feel that they've got to be responding straight away, even if it's something that can actually wait till the next day.
CHARLES CROUCHER: All right. Employers can be fined up to $93,000 if they breach these laws. There is nerves amongst the business community this morning. How do you enforce this and what do you say to those small businesses that are nervous this morning?
MURRAY WATT: Yeah well, for starters, Charles, this law won't apply to small businesses until 12 months’ from now. So we're phasing this in from today - it will apply to large and medium businesses, so those that employ more than 15 employees with another 12 months before it comes in for small businesses. But what we'd be really encouraging employees and their workers to do is to have a discussion about these things, talk about what's reasonable. Of course, there are - there is the ability for an employee to go to the Fair Work Commission and seek an order, just as there is for the fair, for the employer to do so. But we think that that would be the very small minority of cases. And in most cases, people will be able to work these things out just through a bit of discussion and conversation.
SARAH ABO: Yeah hopefully they can and it doesn't get to Fair Work, we don't want to see them inundated. Just what we've got you, Murray, as well. We're seeing some new developments potentially in the aviation sector following that White Paper, hoping to make it a bit fairer for flying passengers.
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, that's right, Sarah. I mean, I think we've all been frustrated, especially over recent years, by what at times has been the unreliability of our airlines. You know, as someone who flies a lot myself, you know, you get a bit sick of cancelled flights or delayed flights, and that's affecting a lot of Australians. Catherine King, our Transport Minister, will have more to say about this, but what this is about is really trying to give consumers more rights when it comes to airlines and airports than what we've seen before. The situation has been a bit lopsided in favour of the airlines, and what we're wanting to do is restore a bit more balance and give consumers a few more rights when it comes to the service that they can expect from our airlines.
CHARLES CROUCHER: Minister, it looks like a beautiful Canberra morning there this morning, I'm missing that crispness already. But great to speak to you this morning.
MURRAY WATT: You too. Thanks for having me on.