{"id":378538,"date":"2026-03-01T22:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T12:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=378538"},"modified":"2026-03-01T22:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T12:15:16","slug":"new-right-to-disconnect-laws-to-be-challenged-for-first-time-by-aussie-rail-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=378538","title":{"rendered":"New right to disconnect laws to be challenged for first time by Aussie rail driver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/au.finance.yahoo.com\/news\/right-to-disconnect-law-change-enforced-for-26-million-more-australians-from-today-not-just-symbolic-190049156.html\">right to disconnect<\/a>&nbsp;from work is set to be tested for the first time by an Aussie rail driver. The worker has invoked the new countrywide laws to stop his employer from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/au.finance.yahoo.com\/news\/damning-research-shows-right-to-disconnect-fails-aussie-workers-scared-to-switch-off-190037481.html\">calling him out of hours<\/a>&nbsp;to confirm shifts for the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/au.finance.yahoo.com\/news\/warning-to-aussie-workers-as-right-to-disconnect-laws-come-into-force-hardest-word-to-say-210450735.html\">right to disconnect law<\/a>, which came into effect in August 2024, has not yet been tested directly. Previous cases have only touched on the law indirectly, such as in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/au.finance.yahoo.com\/news\/right-to-disconnect-warning-as-worker-sues-former-employer-for-800000-people-are-nervous-050735274.html\">unlawful dismissal cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?cat=173\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Pacific National\">Pacific National<\/a> rail driver is now trying to seek orders against requirements that employees take daily robocalls during personal time to advise them of shifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Workers who missed the automated call and did not phone back would reportedly be regarded by Pacific National as absent without leave, with staff losing wages and risking losing their jobs, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.afr.com\/work-and-careers\/workplace\/case-to-test-if-it-s-ok-to-call-workers-after-hours-about-next-shift-20260224-p5o4vl\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Australian Financial Review<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;<\/em>reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some workers have argued the company\u2019s text messages and roster apps should be sufficient, saying the calls are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/au.finance.yahoo.com\/news\/right-to-disconnect-warning-big-change-will-spark-panic-as-every-aussie-gets-new-work-right-from-monday-034208019.html\">unnecessary and intrusive.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The issue was reportedly raised in a recent workers meeting, which led Pacific National management to send out an email to staff insisting the calls were reasonable and staff were fairly compensated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile the right to disconnect is recognised, our enterprise agreement still requires next-turn-of-duty advice which is standard across the industry and ensures you have accurate sign-on and barracks details,\u201d an email written by Pacific National regional operations manager Carla Ebers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYour aggregate allowance already covers reasonable out-of-hours contact, including what would otherwise fall under an on-call allowance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freight operator Pacific National is reportedly resisting a right to disconnect case that would stop it from calling staff after hours about their next shift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":378539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,173,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-pacific-national","category-rail-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=378538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378541,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378538\/revisions\/378541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/378539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}