---
title: "Small Business and the Right to Disconnect Laws - Sapience Financial"
description: "Learn about the 'Right to Disconnect' (RTD) under the Fair Work Act and its implications for Small Business employees and employers in the workplace."
url: "https://sapience.com.au/resources/small-business-alerts/small-business-and-the-right-to-disconnect-laws"
date: "2026-05-25T10:21:35+00:00"
language: "en-GB"
---

#  Small Business Alerts

##  Small Business and the Right to Disconnect Laws

- [ small business news ](https://sapience.com.au/all-tags/small-business-news)

#### Small businesses are required to observe the changes to the the ‘Right to Disconnect’ (RTD) from 26 August 2025.

On 26 August 2024 the ‘Right to Disconnect’ (RTD) in the Fair Work Amendment (Closing Loopholes No.2) Act 2024 took effect for national system employers with more than 15 employees.

#### **What is the Right to Disconnect?**

The new RTD under the Fair Work Act will give employees the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact, or attempted contact, from an employer or third party outside of the employee’s working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable.

#### **Can employees be contacted at all outside of working hours?**

The RTD does not prevent all contact with employees after hours, rather it prohibits the unreasonable expectation or demand for contact when the employee has reasonably refused.

Workplace Rights and Health and Safety

Under work health and safety laws, persons conducting a business have a duty to ensure that risks to worker’s physical, psychosocial health and safety are eliminated or minimised, as far as reasonably practicable. It's recognised that high job demands, challenging work hours and unrealistic expectations to be responsive outside work hours can be a psychosocial hazard.

As part of these changes, s 333R of the FWA provides that concurrent actions under work health and safety laws will not be prevented from proceeding. This means employers could face legal stop order orders made under both safety and employment law.

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