A Full Bench has finalised the right to disconnect modern award term. We will add the term into all 155 modern awards. The new right starts on 26 August 2024 for most employers. For employers who are small business employers on 26 August 2024, the right will start on 26 August 2025.
We finalised the right to disconnect term after a public consultation process. We published a draft right to disconnect term on 11 July 2024 and received 18 submissions in response.
We need to add the new right to disconnect term into modern awards because of changes brought about by the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Act 2024.
We are publishing the determinations that add the term to modern awards as they become available, according to the timetable set out in Justice Hatcher’s 26 March 2024 Statement.
Updated modern awards
We are updating modern awards with the new right to disconnect, as well as changes to casual employment terms. We expect to have published all updated modern awards by Monday, 2 September 2024.
Written guidelines
We also need to write guidelines about how the right to disconnect works. We will be in a better position to make the guidelines after we deal with some disputes about how the right works.
12 month review
We will review the right to disconnect term in about 12 months. As part of the review you will be able to tell us about any practical difficulties that you have found using the term. You can also apply to change (vary) the terms in any award before the review.
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