The Pastoral Award 2020 was varied from 26 August 2024. To provide conditions for employees to disconnect outside their normal working hours. This will apply to employees of Businesses with 15 or more employees from that date and to employees of Small Businesses (those with fewer than 15 employees) from 26 August 2025.
The right to disconnect protects employees who refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working hours, unless their refusal is unreasonable.
This includes contact, or attempted contact, from their employer, or another person, if the contact or attempted contact is work-related. Certain matters need to be considered when determining whether or not an employee's refusal is unreasonable.
These include:
