Australians are allowed to switch off outside of working hours

A new law gives millions of employees the right to be unavailable to their superiors in their free time - and to refuse to respond to attempts to contact them. The so-called "Fair Work Legislation Amendment" was passed by parliament in February.

Employees in medium-sized and large companies can now switch off their cell phones after work and no longer have to respond to emails. For employees in companies with fewer than 15 employees, the new rules will not come into force for another year. But there are exceptions - for example, if ignoring contact attempts is inappropriate, especially in the event of a work-related emergency, as reported by 9News.

More time for the family

"We want to make sure that people who are not paid 24 hours a day don't have to work 24 hours a day," said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an interview with the Australian broadcaster ABC. "It's also a mental health issue, because it's about people being able to get away from their work and get back to their family and their lives."

Studies had previously shown that the work-life balance in Australia was worse than in many other countries, the media wrote. There are already similar laws in around 25 countries, said John Hopkins from the Faculty of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University.