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Work, career and remote life

Right to disconnect

A legal right for employees to ignore work contact outside working hours, or a rule that employers set limits on it, depending on the country.

What It Means

The right to disconnect is a workplace rule that protects employees' time off from work emails, calls and messages. Its form depends on where you work. Australia gives most employees a right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to work contact outside working hours unless refusing is unreasonable, France requires companies to set out how employees exercise the right, and Ontario requires larger employers to have a written policy on disconnecting from work.

Try It: What the Rule Says Where You Work

Pick a place to see what its rule does and who it covers, from each government's own pages.

Australia

You may refuse to monitor, read or respond to work contact outside your hours, unless refusing is unreasonable.

Employers with 15 or more employees from August 26, 2024; small businesses from August 26, 2025.

How People Say It at Work

  • "In Australia you can ignore the 9 p.m. email now."
  • "Our company has a disconnecting-from-work policy."
  • "Is there a right to disconnect in the U.S.?"

The Breakdown

What the rules say

PlaceWhat the rule doesWho it coversSince
AustraliaRight to refuse to monitor, read or respond to out-of-hours contact unless refusal is unreasonableEmployees of employers with 15 or more employees; then small business employeesAugust 26, 2024; August 26, 2025
FranceCompanies negotiate how the right is used; without an agreement, the employer writes a charterCharter schoolA tuition-free public school run under a charter, a contract with a state, district or other authorizer, that families choose rather than being assigned to. See more after consulting the social and economic committeeCompanies covered by the Labor Code's mandatory negotiation rules (Article L2242-17)January 1, 2017
OntarioA written policy on disconnecting from workEmployers with 25 or more employees on January 1 of a yearAdded December 2, 2021; policies due before March 1 each year from 2023
United StatesFederal law sets no general right to disconnect; the hours-worked rule still appliesCovered nonexempt workers, for hours workedNot applicable

How Australia judges "unreasonable." The Fair Work Ombudsman lists the reason for the contact, the employee's role and level of responsibility, their personal circumstances, how the contact is made and how disruptive it is, and any extra pay for working extra hours or staying available.

Documents worth having. In Ontario, your employer must give you a copy of its policy within 30 days of writing or changing it, and the policy carries the date it was prepared and changed. Anywhere, keep a simple record of after-hours contact: the date, time, who contacted you and what they asked.

Good to Know

Australia's right doesn't stop an employer from contacting employees, or employees from contacting each other, including across time zones, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman, and it's a workplace right with general protections against adverse action. Ontario's ESACoverdell ESAA tax-advantaged education savings account that can take up to $2,000 a year per child, for school costs from kindergarten through college. See more guide defines disconnecting from work as not engaging in work communications, such as email, calls, video calls or messages, so you're free from performing work. In the U.S., the Department of Labor counts any time a covered nonexempt employee is suffered or permitted to work as hours worked, and overtime applies after 40 hours in a workweek.

FAQ

Does the U.S. have a right to disconnect?

Federal law sets no general right to disconnect. For covered nonexempt workers, the Department of Labor counts time you're suffered or permitted to work as hours worked, so after-hours work still has to be counted.

When did Australia's right to disconnect start?

August 26, 2024 for employees of employers with 15 or more employees, and August 26, 2025 for employees of small businesses with fewer than 15, per the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Does Ontario's law let me ignore my boss after hours?

Ontario requires employers with 25 or more employees to have a written policy on disconnecting from work. What you may ignore depends on what that policy says, so ask for your copy.

Do It in Buhata

Team Space boards

Write your team's after-hours contact rules in a thread on a board in your Team Space, so everyone knows what counts as urgent and how it reaches people.

Open Buhata

Related Terms and Categories

  • Boundaries at work

    Limits a person sets and tells others about at work, covering their time, workload, availability and how they're treated.

  • Work-life balance

    How your time and energy divide between paid work and the rest of your life, such as family, rest, health and interests.

  • Remote work

    Doing your job from somewhere other than your employer's workplace, most often from home, for some or all of the workweek.

Work, career and remote life

Sources

Fair Work Ombudsman, "Right to disconnect begins today" (August 26, 2024); Fair Work Ombudsman, "Right to disconnect for small business employees starts 26 August" (2025); Fair Work Commission, "What is the right to disconnect"; Légifrance, Code du travail, "Article L2242-17"; Government of Ontario, "Your guide to the Employment Standards Act: Written policy on disconnecting from work"; U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, "Overtime Pay"

Last updated .