- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
Australia gives millions of workers 'right to disconnect'
Australia gave millions of workers the legal right to "disconnect" on Monday, allowing them to ignore unreasonable out-of-hours calls, emails and texts from their bosses.
People can now refuse to monitor, read, or respond to their employers' attempts to contact them outside work hours -- unless that refusal is deemed "unreasonable".
Unions welcomed the legislation, saying it gave workers a way to reclaim some work-life balance.
"Today is a historic day for working people," said Michele O'Neil, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
"Australian unions have reclaimed the right to knock off after work," she said.
In the streets of Sydney, people appeared to welcome the change.
"I have a very hard time disconnecting and even though I may not necessarily be logged on, my brain is constantly working overtime," not-for-profit worker Karolina Joseski told AFP.
"So getting that after-hour call from my boss doesn't necessarily help."
- 'Deeply confusing' -
But the reform got a cool welcome from Australia's top industry body.
"The 'right to disconnect' laws are rushed, poorly thought out and deeply confusing," the Australian Industry Group said in a statement.
"At the very least, employers and employees will now be uncertain about whether they can take or make a call out of hours to offer an extra shift," it said.
The law is similar to those of some European and Latin American countries.
Research indicates that the right to disconnect benefits employees, said University of Sydney associate professor Chris Wright.
More than 70 percent of workers in European Union companies with a right to disconnect policy considered its impact to be positive, according to a November 2023 study by the EU work-related agency Eurofound.
Employees are experiencing "availability creep" as smartphones and other digital devices put them in reach of their employers, Wright told AFP.
"Having a measure that restores to some extent the boundary between people's work and non-work lives is a positive thing, certainly for employees but also for employers," he said, particularly in industries trying to lure new workers.
- 'Commonsense' -
The Australian law, enacted in February, came into force for medium-sized and large companies as of Monday.
Smaller firms with fewer than 15 employees will be covered from August 26, 2025.
The head of Australia's workplace relations regulator, Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth, said people should take a "commonsense approach" to applying the new law.
Under the legislation, workers may be ordered by a tribunal to stop unreasonably refusing out-of-hours contact, and employers likewise may be ordered to stop unreasonably requiring employees to respond, the regulator said.
The question of what is reasonable will "depend on the circumstances", the Fair Work Ombudsman said in a statement.
Deciding factors may include the reason for the contact, the nature of the employee's role, and their compensation for working extra hours or being available, it said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed the reform, which was pushed through by his centre-left Labor government.
"We want to make sure that just as people don't get paid 24 hours a day, they don't have to work for 24 hours a day," he told national broadcaster ABC.
"It's a mental health issue, frankly, as well, for people to be able to disconnect from their work and connect with their family and their life."
Ch.Kahalev--AMWN