Field notes › Rostering
Right to disconnect: texting crew about tomorrow's shift
The right to disconnect does not ban the 8pm text about tomorrow's shift. It gives employees the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact outside their working hours unless that refusal is unreasonable, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman. For a labour hire office, rostering around it means agreeing ahead of time what after-hours contact crew should expect, why it happens and how it reaches them.
Who the right to disconnect covers, and from when
As at September 2026, the Fair Work Ombudsman's right to disconnect page gives two start dates, depending on the size of the employer. A small business employer is one with fewer than 15 employees at a particular time. Employees of associated entities count towards that number, and casuals don't unless they're engaged on a regular and systematic basis.
| Employer | Right applies from |
|---|---|
| 15 or more employees | 26 August 2024 |
| Fewer than 15 employees | 26 August 2025 |
The Fair Work Commission says the right applies to national system employees and does not apply to independent contractors. If you're unsure where your crew or your business sits, ask the Fair Work Ombudsman or your adviser rather than guessing.
Two details on the Ombudsman's page matter more in labour hire than in most businesses. Contact covers calls, emails, texts, social media and messaging services, so a text is squarely in scope. And the right covers contact from third parties, which the Ombudsman says can include clients. A site supervisor ringing your worker at home about tomorrow is contact too, even though it never came through your office.
The 8pm text about tomorrow's shift
Labour hire rosters change late. A client trims numbers the afternoon before, someone calls in sick, a start time moves because the crane isn't coming until ten. The message has to go out after most of the crew have knocked off.
The Ombudsman is clear that the rules don't make out of hours contact unlawful. The focus is on whether an employee's refusal was unreasonable, and the factors that must be considered are the reason for the contact, how it's made and how disruptive it is, how much the employee is paid to be available or to work extra hours, their role and level of responsibility, and what is going on in their life, such as family or caring responsibilities. Other matters can be considered too. Refusing contact that is required by law will be unreasonable.
Whether a particular message to a particular worker crosses that line depends on those facts, and that's one for the Fair Work Ombudsman or your adviser. What the office does control is its own habits. Put everything in one message rather than a drip of follow-ups: the site, the start time, what changed and who to tell if they can't make it. Decide beforehand what happens when a change lands too late to expect a reply, whether that's ringing a standby worker in the morning or holding the spot open, so nobody starts working down the phone list at nine o'clock. And keep client supervisors going through the office rather than straight to crew phones, which also stops the roster drifting away from what the site thinks is happening.
On call is a different arrangement
The Ombudsman's page lists a common misunderstanding: that the right to disconnect lets someone on call or on overtime ignore calls. Someone who is on call or working overtime can still be expected to pick up, and the page tells readers to check which rules cover their situation.
Those rules often sit in the award. The Ombudsman says all awards include a right to disconnect clause, and some spell out when out-of-hours contact has to be answered, such as when the worker gets an on-call allowance and the call is about work coming up or a recall. The Commission says every one of the 155 modern awards now has a right to disconnect term, and that enterprise agreement terms more favourable to employees than the Fair Work Act right still apply.
If you keep a bench of standby crew, be exact about who is on call, for which days, and on what terms under their award or agreement. Don't let a casual being keen for extra shifts quietly turn into an on-call arrangement nobody actually agreed to.
What a reasonable contact policy for crew covers
The Ombudsman encourages employers and employees to discuss out of hours contact and set expectations, ideally before the contact happens. The topics it suggests covering are the times a worker might be expected to check or reply, any pay and conditions tied to that, the contact channels people prefer, who needs to know about the arrangement, and when to review it. It also suggests thinking about how the arrangement is recorded, such as in writing, and whether and how to discuss expectations with external clients.
For a labour hire crew, that turns into a short page covering:
- the time after which the office won't expect a reply about the next day, and what happens to changes that land after it
- who is on call in a given week, and the one channel the office will use to reach them
- whether client supervisors may contact crew directly, and about what
- the channel each worker prefers for routine roster news
- when the policy gets looked at again, such as when a new client or roster pattern starts
Put it somewhere crew will read it.
Sending roster news without the late phone tree
Most after-hours contact from a labour hire office is roster news, and much of it can go out in a way that lets the worker choose when to look. In Mustr, the organisation decides which notices may be sent, and each person picks app, email, both or nothing for each notice. Crew are told when their shift's dates, site or day/night change, when they come off a shift and when it's cancelled. Shifts saved as drafts notify nobody, so a rosterer building next week's roster at night isn't sending anyone anything, and the "let the people affected know" tick on the shift form, on by default, sits right where the change is made.
Mustr has no SMS, so a change that can't wait until morning still needs a phone call from a person. SMS is on the public roadmap.
Questions people ask
Can I still text casual workers about shifts after hours?
The Fair Work Ombudsman is clear that contacting staff out of hours is still lawful under these rules. Employees can decline to watch for, read or reply to that contact, as long as declining isn't unreasonable. Whether a refusal is unreasonable depends on factors such as the reason for the contact, how disruptive it is and any pay for being available, so check your circumstances with the Ombudsman or your adviser.
Does the right to disconnect apply to small business?
Yes. As at September 2026 the Fair Work Ombudsman says it has applied to employees of small business employers, those with fewer than 15 employees, from 26 August 2025. It applied to employees of larger employers from 26 August 2024.
Do on-call employees have a right to disconnect?
According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, being on call or on overtime means a worker can still be expected to take and answer calls. Some awards say when a worker has to respond after hours, for instance when they receive an on-call allowance and the call is about upcoming work or a recall. Check the award or agreement that covers the worker.
Who deals with a right to disconnect dispute?
The Fair Work Ombudsman says disputes should first be discussed at the workplace level. If that doesn't work, employees or employers can go to the Fair Work Commission. The Commission can make orders, including orders to stop an employee refusing contact or to stop an employer taking certain actions, or deal with the dispute in other ways.
For how a shift change reaches crew, clients and the office, read who should hear about it when a shift changes, or try it with sample data.