Alongside this morning’s news that eligible employees now have a new ‘right to disconnect’ outside of work hours, I read in The Australian (subscription required) that former rugby league player Peter Tunks is suing 2SM for twenty years of underpayment.
Angelica Snowdon‘s article says:
“He (Tunks) said he worked no less than 51 hours a week which included nine hours of hosting, nine hours of research preparation plus 32 to 35 hours watching and reading about sports for talkback analysis.”
2SM, through their lawyer, have strenuously denied the claims and will file their defence in September.
Today’s changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 are a formal workplace right that allows employees to disconnect from work outside of their usual work hours, which covers attempted contact by their employer or a third party.
For an employer, if they think the disconnect is unreasonable, then additional factors like:
- the reason for the contact
- how the contact is made and how disruptive it is to the employee
- how much the employee is compensated or paid extra for:
- being available to perform work during the period they’re contacted, or
- working additional hours outside their ordinary hours of work
- the employee’s role in the business and level of responsibility
- the employee’s personal circumstances, including family or caring responsibilities.
Might also be considered. But, it will be unreasonable for an employee to refuse to read, monitor or respond if the contact or attempted contact is required by law.
There has been plenty of chat on social media, on news websites and in my home about this change, and its potential effectiveness.
For my partner, who works in a tasks focused environment, this is a good and relatively straight forward change. A message on Sunday night to prioritise getting X done can be read Monday morning and actioned then. I do realise that it is never quite that simple though.
For the media industries, radio, television and print, where it’s all hands on deck when a significant events happens that affects readers, listeners or viewers, a 11pm message of a critical incident can’t be disconnected from. Again I realise that most journalist and presenter’s contracts will have clauses specifically addressing overtime and unusual events above and beyond regular duties.
In this working world where technology and the pandemic have increasingly found us ways to work from home, it’s the incidentals in our roles that never truly allow radio people to disconnect, and I don’t think that The Fair Work Act can find a change to suitably cover that.
As Tunks has alluded to in his claim, an NRL sports commentator or presenter might have to watch every game of football across the weekend. That is a minimum of 11 hours there, 12 for AFL.
For a breakfast radio presenter or producer, and you will all have had this happen, you’ve reached out at 9am to a person you want to interview tomorrow. They don’t come back to you until after they finish work at 6pm. You might need to get audio then and there, or spend time getting details ahead of the conversation. Then that conversation might then also take you down another wormhole of someone else you should contact.
It is the very nature of live and local radio, commercial and community, the inability to disconnect.
I wonder what 2GB’s Ray Hadley made of this change this morning?
“A wise old broadcaster once told me: ‘Be yourself, get in before anyone else and work public holidays’. The formula seems to have worked.”
Part of his hardworking ethos would always mean he always take calls after hours that would add value to his show. He never switches off and is always prepared, which he demonstrated at the Olympics, bearing in mind he also calls the rugby league and presents a country music program alongside his morning talk show. He would watch all the games, research the individual competitors and know where any up and coming country star came from.
I too can’t see this change applying to me. Like Hadley, I like being across what’s happening, when it is happening. This new right feels like, as my mother would say, kicking myself in the foot.
What do you make of it?
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo
Email: [email protected]