GO HOME, TURN OFF – The Weekend Australian

By Alan J. McDonald

The Weekend Australian has a chat to McDonald Murholme’s Managing Director Alan McDonald about the advantages of employees disconnecting from emails once they knock off work.

See below article for further details.

GO HOME, TURN OFF – The Weekend Australian

Workplace law firm McDonald Murholme is encouraging Australian managers and employees to follow the French and disconnect from emails once they finish work at night, saying expecting workers to be connected 24 hours a day is a breach of workplace laws.

Legislation recently approved in France grants employees the legal right to disconnect from emails and ignore work correspondence outside normal working hours, to minimise workplace stress and limit the use of work-related technology away from the office.

Managing director Alan McDonald says the French have often been at the forefront of change and the ban is a good example of change geared towards improving employee living standards and family life, at no cost to the employer.

“Responsible employers have recognised for a very long time that good work-life balance attracts the best employees,” McDonald says.

“It gives longevity of service and it ensures high performance.

“Surreptitiously extending work hours by expecting employees to be on call 24/7 via email is already in breach of Australian workplace law.”

He says employees working more than reasonable hours of overtime should be eligible for time in lieu.

Reference: ‘GO HOME, TURN OFF’, The Weekend Australian, 21 January 2017.