Tune out, turn off, lean in: Go Home on Time Day

Will you go home from work on time today?

It’s not a trivial question, if you ask it of every day you work.

In 2022 the average Australian employee puts in six weeks of unpaid overtime per year costing them on average $8,000.

The Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute considers unpaid overtime (which it calls time theft) such a big issue it created Go Home on Time Day.

Now in its fourteenth year, Go Home on Time Day exposes the scourge of unpaid overtime, exposing facts like:

• unpaid overtime costs the average employee $460 per fortnight

• unpaid overtime costs $125 billion per year across the whole labour market

• one in three Australian workers, 4.1 million people, are in insecure jobs where they are susceptible to exploitation, pay inequality, financial stress, and hardship.

Education staff know all too well the extra demands employers ask and expect. The entire No More Freebies campaign in Victorian Catholic bargaining is about employees putting a stop to all the unpaid extra duties which have crept into their occupation.

One enthusiastic Rep told us she was staying with No More Freebies “forever”.

“She’d continue to work hard for her students but would no longer take on extra duties – regardless of when a deal in Catholic education was struck,” we reported in the upcoming edition of The Point.

“Taking part in the No More Freebies campaign had made it even more stark to her how much of her time had been stolen by a ridiculous workload.”

The CFW says its crucial to “set boundaries for yourself and your workplace” and “switch off your laptop, mute your phones and have a clear demarcation line between them and the relentless and ever-present demands of the workplace”.

Australian Unions says stricter boundaries help you switch off outside of work hours, and contribute to a “healthier work/life balance and better working relationships”.

“Boundaries can look like turning off your phone or silencing work emails after hours, taking short, regular breaks during the workday to recharge, delegating work to colleagues when you’re feeling swamped or taking a mental health day.

“The most important thing is to communicate your boundaries to your manager or colleagues. This doesn’t have to be a scary conversation, a simple ‘Hey, just so you know I’m going to sign off at 5.30pm so if there’s anything you want to chat about before then let me know’, is more than fine.

If you are in a tough situation and such a conversation with the boss seems too difficult, consult your union.

Members of the Finance Sector Union (FSU), like teachers, are expected to take work home with them, and they are campaigning for workers being able to unplug.

FSU Victorian and Tasmanian secretary Nicole McPherson told Nine, “as the use of technology in our workers grew, there’s been an increasing expectation for us to be available all the time”.

She says the right to disconnect won’t stand in the way of management calling staff during emergencies, but the rights of staff drew a clear line between work and their own time.

“The good news is our rights exist whether our employers are prepared to acknowledge them or not! The right to disconnect is just another way to say you have the right to a work- life balance. And you do!

“Turning off the computer, the phone, applying your out of office, not accepting meetings before or after work. These are all things you must feel confident to do in order to assert your right to disconnect.

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus says, “Protection for workers’ right to disconnect outside of working hours is necessary not only for workers’ mental wellbeing, but to also make sure that workers with caring responsibilities – who are mostly women – don’t fall unfairly behind their colleagues in terms of pay, advancement and promotion.”

Queensland teachers win disconnect breakthrough

On 23 November, Queensland public teachers voted for a proposed deal that included “encouraging them to disconnect from digital technologies outside of work”, Workplace Express reported.

The three-year draft deal's digital technologies clause says Queensland's education department is "committed to minimising digital communications with employees to ensure an appropriate work/life balance is met, whilst accommodating operational needs".

Employees - who voted by a 94% to support the deal - are "encouraged to disconnect from digital technologies and communications when accessing rest time, weekends and leave/vacation periods, except in exceptional circumstances".

The clause acknowledges that it is also "important to discuss work expectations when relying on the benefits of greater accessibility of technology, to ensure a duty of care to provide safe and healthy workplaces".

The Queensland Teacher’s Union secured the right to disconnect clause following a three-year campaign.

The union's workload reduction campaign was "focused on change at six levels: national, state, regional, community, school and individual".

"The right to disconnect arises from the sixth level, individual, simultaneously recognising the professional autonomy of teachers to make decisions that take into account their work-life balance."

Greens Senator Barbara Pocock said her party wants "everyone to have a right to disconnect".

"The pressure on workers to be available at all hours, particularly when working remotely, clearly has serious implications for mental and physical health and increases work related stress," Senator Pocock said.

"This is an issue that has come into sharp focus for many of us during the pandemic when we have had to juggle work and care responsibilities at home," she said.

"The Greens want a right to disconnect in federal law, and Labor agreed in the interim report of the Senate Work and Care Inquiry to back our push

“Enterprise agreements such as the Queensland Teachers Union have just struck are a strong indication that Australian employers are finally recognising that the ability of workers to enjoy quality rest time away from the pressures of their jobs is a basic right that should be protected."