Remote staff and right to disconnect in Australia when the manager sits overseas

The right to disconnect entitles an employee to leave employer contact unchecked, unread and unanswered outside working hours, provided that refusing is not unreasonable. It covers remote and office-based staff alike and forms part of the Fair Work Act 2009.

The right applied first to larger employers and was extended to small business employers from 26 August 2025, as the Fair Work Commission noted. Every Australian employee is now covered, whatever the size of the business.

The right concerns the employee’s response. It does not forbid a manager from sending a message at 9pm Sydney time, and it does not require systems that block messages after hours. What changes is that an employee who leaves that message until the next working day is exercising a statutory right, and treating them less favourably for it creates legal risk.

For overseas employers the point to absorb is that silence outside Australian hours is now the default the law protects. Team rules, performance reviews and on-call expectations should all be written with that default in mind.

A written disconnect policy for Australian staff can be short. It should state the ordinary hours for each role, the channels used for urgent matters, who may contact an employee outside hours and for what, and how any availability is paid. Share it with the employer of record so that the contract and the policy describe the same arrangement.

Time zones turn the right to disconnect from an occasional question into a daily one, because most of a European or North American working day falls in the Australian evening or night. A stand-up scheduled for a head office morning can land at a time when the Australian employee is off duty.

A few habits reduce friction without slowing the team down:

• Use scheduled send so that messages arrive during the recipient’s working hours.
• Rotate recurring meeting times so the Australian member is not always the one joining late.
• Record decisions in writing so that someone offline can catch up the next morning.
• Agree in advance which issues justify a call outside hours, and who may make it.

Where a role genuinely needs overlap with another region, build that into the ordinary hours in the contract. An employee whose agreed working day runs from 11am to 7pm Sydney time is not disconnected at 6pm, and the question of after-hours contact moves to later in the evening. Shifted hours of this kind should be agreed at hiring, with the employee’s consent, and not introduced by a manager’s calendar invitations months later.

If the business needs someone reachable overnight, treat it as on-call work: define the hours, the response expected and how the time is paid or compensated. That arrangement is far easier to defend than an unwritten expectation that the Australian employee will answer whenever headquarters is awake.

Whether a refusal is unreasonable depends on the circumstances of the contact and the role, and the Fair Work Commission’s guidance on the right to disconnect is the place to start before drawing up a policy. No simple rule sorts every case, and the answer for a senior manager with an on-call allowance will differ from the answer for a graduate analyst.

In practice, the factors an employer can control are the ones to focus on: why the contact was made, whether the employee is paid or compensated for being available, how urgent the matter really was and whether the expectation was agreed beforehand. A policy that sets these out for each role type gives managers something concrete to rely on.

It helps to separate genuine emergencies from ordinary urgency. A production outage affecting customers, a security incident or a safety issue may justify a call at night, and staff will usually accept that when the categories are agreed in advance. A deadline that head office forgot to mention during Australian hours is a planning failure, and the policy should say so plainly.

Avoid building availability into performance metrics by accident. Response-time dashboards, “online” indicators and praise for late-night replies can all tell staff that disconnecting is held against them, even where the written policy says otherwise.

A remote employee’s state or territory decides several parts of their employment, because payroll tax, workers’ compensation, long service leave, public holidays and labour hire licensing are state matters. Knowing where the employee actually works is therefore the first data point payroll needs.

Public holidays show the effect clearly. In New South Wales in 2026, Anzac Day fell on a Saturday and an additional public holiday was declared on Monday 27 April, while Labour Day falls on Monday 5 October; the NSW Government list sets out every date. Other states set some of their holidays on different days, so a team spread across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will not share one calendar.

Payroll tax follows the same logic. It is a state tax paid by the employer, and in New South Wales the 2026-27 rate is 5.45% on taxable wages above an annual threshold of AUD 1,200,000. Other states set their own rates and thresholds, so the figure for a Perth or Hobart employee is not the Sydney figure.

Labour hire licensing is the other state rule to watch. Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT run licensing schemes, and a set-up where one business hires and pays a person whose work is done for another business may be caught by them. The guide to labour hire licensing by state explains what that means for an employer of record arrangement.

Ask every remote hire to confirm their usual work address at onboarding and to give notice before relocating interstate. A move from New South Wales to Victoria changes the long service leave rules, the payroll tax authority and the public holiday calendar in one step.

Work health and safety laws are set by each state and territory, and employers should plan on the basis that duties can reach a home workspace; confirm the detail with the regulator in the employee’s state. For a fully remote hire, the home office is where the work happens, so it belongs in the safety plan.

A proportionate approach covers the basics without inspecting anyone’s house:

• A short self-assessment of the workstation, desk, chair and screen at onboarding.
• Equipment or an allowance where the assessment shows a gap.
• Clear working hours and breaks, which also support the right to disconnect.
• A simple route to report an injury or a hazard, including psychological strain.
• A review when the employee moves house or changes their set-up.

Workers’ compensation insurance is taken out by the legal employer under state law. Premium rates and the treatment of home-based injuries vary by scheme, so ask the employer of record how incidents at home are reported and handled before the first one happens. Keep the completed workstation assessment with the employment records held by the employer of record, where it can be found if a claim is ever made.

Isolation and after-hours pressure are part of the safety picture for remote staff. A manager who respects the right to disconnect is also cutting a source of work-related strain, which is a useful way to frame the policy for leadership teams.

Yes. Under the National Employment Standards, once an employee has completed 12 months’ service they may ask for flexible working arrangements, which can include changes to where they work, and the Fair Work Information Statement summarises the right. The NES also sets out how an employer must deal with a request, and the Fair Work Ombudsman explains the steps.

For a company hiring its first Australian staff, the request process matters less than the starting point. If the role is remote from day one, say so in the contract and describe the expected location, hours and any travel to a client or co-working site. The employee then has no need to request what the contract already provides.

Hybrid roles benefit from the same clarity. State how many days are expected in a shared space, who pays for that space and how the arrangement can change. Leaving it to an informal understanding with one manager makes the terms hard to apply fairly when the manager changes.

When a request does arrive, from an employee who started in a hybrid role and now wants to work fully from home, handle it in writing. Record the date it was received, the arrangement asked for and the reasons for the decision, and involve the employer of record’s HR team early, since the NES process sits with the legal employer.

Hiring through Employer of Record Australia makes us the employer on paper, and we handle payroll, super and statutory reporting for the state they work in. You direct the daily work, set objectives and decide how the team communicates across time zones.

The division of work suits remote roles well because the state-based items, such as payroll tax, workers’ compensation and public holidays, attach to the legal employer’s payroll. The policy items, including after-hours contact and meeting habits, are set by your team and should be shared with the employer of record so that the contract and the reality match.

Equipment and allowances need one decision up front. Laptops, monitors and internet allowances can be provided through the employer of record or bought by you and shipped, and non-cash benefits can bring fringe benefits tax into play, a separate employer tax with a year ending 31 March. Ask the employer of record which route it supports before promising anything in the offer.

Before the first remote hire starts, agree the ordinary hours and time zone, the state of work, the equipment arrangement and a written after-hours contact policy. Our employment contract checklist covers the matching contract clauses, and the services page sets out who handles each task.

Q01Does the right to disconnect apply to remote workers in Australia?+

A.Yes. It covers all employees, including those working from home, and since 26 August 2025 it has applied to small business employers as well as larger ones. An employee may refuse to monitor, read or respond to out-of-hours contact unless the refusal is unreasonable.

Q02Can a manager overseas still message Australian staff after hours?+

A.The right does not stop messages being sent. It protects the employee who chooses not to read or reply until their next working period, unless the refusal would be unreasonable in the circumstances.

Q03Which state’s rules apply to a remote Australian employee?+

A.In general, the state or territory in which the work is done. That location settles payroll tax, the workers’ comp scheme, which long service leave Act applies and which public holidays are observed. Confirm the work address at onboarding and ask for notice before an interstate move.

Q04Can staff in Australia insist on remote work?+

A.They have a right to request flexible working, which can include location, after 12 months’ service under the NES. If the role is remote from the start, write that into the contract.

Q05Who insures a remote employee under an EOR arrangement?+

A.Workers’ compensation insurance is held by the legal employer under state law, which in an EOR arrangement is the employer of record. Agree with the employer of record how home-based incidents are reported.