Labour laws protecting workers’ free time appear to be paying dividends, with research showing employees are working less unpaid overtime.
The average full-time worker would have worked an extra $4500 per year in unpaid overtime if rates remained the same as they were before Labor’s right to disconnect laws were introduced, according to a report from the Australian Institute’s Centre for Future Work on Wednesday.
While there could be other factors at play in the reduction in unpaid overtime, report author Fiona Macdonald said the legislation appeared to be having the intended impact.
In 2023, the survey found full-time employees were working on average 6.2 hours of unpaid overtime each week.
Following the law’s implementation in 2024, that number dipped to 4.1 hours. In this year’s poll of 1001 workers, it slid further to 3.8 hours per week.
In today’s wages, that’s a drop from $13,392 in unpaid overtime per worker in 2023 to $8892 in 2025.
“Cost-of-living pressures are still impacting on people’s desire for work. So you wouldn’t expect it to be particularly dropping otherwise,” Dr Macdonald told AAP.
She speculated a rise in collective bargaining might have resulted in workers negotiating for more flexibility arrangements, which could also have contributed to reduced unpaid overtime for full-time workers.
But the opposite was true for part-time and casual workers.
Part-time workers’ unpaid overtime rose from 2.8 hours per week in 2024 to 3.7 hours per week in 2025.
Dr Macdonald said there were a number of reasons why right to disconnect laws would have been less effective for part-time workers.
For one, they have a higher tendency to work in sectors such as hospitality and retail with a higher proportion of small businesses, which have only had to comply with right to disconnect laws since August 2025.
“So I think so we might see some further reductions. But I also think there’s some systemic, structural issues with part-time work,” she said.
Part-time employees are more likely to work in precarious, insecure employment and may be less aware of their rights, for example.
Adding clauses into collective agreements to ensure overtime kicked in automatically or employers had to transparently record hours worked against hours paid could help address the issue, Dr Macdonald said.
Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth said no significant disputes were raised with the Fair Work Commission about the right to disconnect laws in their first 12 months.
She pointed to an Australian HR Institute survey showing 58 per cent of employers said the right to disconnect had improved employee engagement and productivity
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