Australians now have the legal right to disconnect from work. But how effective will it be?

Australia's right-to-disconnect law has come into effect — giving employees the right to refuse contact if their employers reach out to them by phone or email after hours, a type of law that has popped up around the world.

"What we're simply saying is that someone who is not being paid 24 hours a day shouldn't be penalized if they're not online and available 24 hours a day," said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ahead of the legislation's enactment into law.

Industry leaders were less keen on the legislation. "I think this is a triumph of stupidity over common sense," said Andrew McKellar of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The legislation doesn't stop bosses from reaching out in the first place. And like other right-to-disconnect laws, there's a caveat: workers will have the right to refuse contact unless the refusal is deemed unreasonable. Whether the request itself is unreasonable isn't a factor, according to the country's work tribunal.

That unreasonability depends on a number of factors, like the worker's role, their personal circumstances, the method and reason for contact, how much they're disrupted by the request and how they're compensated for being available or working more.

Right-to-disconnect laws vary from country to country.

The laws also exist in Belgium and Germany, and are being considered in the U.K. and Kenya. Critics of the French legislation have called it too vague to be effective. And Ontario's legislation — which forces companies with 25 or more employees to draft a right-to-disconnect policy — was criticized as toothless. 

Experts say most right-to-disconnect laws put pressure on companies to clarify work-life balance policies. But their effectiveness depends on other factors, like what recourse employees have in reporting violations of the law, or even the work culture of the country where the law exists.

While various right-to-disconnect laws exist around the world, one thing they have in common is that they're designed to keep employees from being overworked, said Ope Akanbi, an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and a faculty member of the university's Communication and Culture School.

"It is designed to give people some room to sort of take a break from work and focus on other aspects of life," she said, noting that in countries like Japan and the U.S., there are high rates of workplace-related suicides.

"Health reasons, social reasons are at the forefront of what brings these kinds of laws into being in various jurisdictions," Akanbi said, while noting that in many countries where such laws have been passed, there's been an acknowledgement of just how difficult they are to enforce.

"The way the right to disconnect operates is it's not quite a traditional right. As a matter of fact, some people might go as far as to say it doesn't add anything new to employment relations."

In some cases, Akanbi says the law is simply a conversation starter. "It's something that is supposed to trigger a kind of organizational move to articulate specific expectations about when communications should be initiated or responded to."

Ontario's right to disconnect policy is more like a "right to have a workplace policy," said Daniel Lublin, an employment lawyer with Whitten and Lublin in Toronto. "There's a difference."