Right to Disconnect — Civil Penalty Calculator
Out-of-hours contact is not itself a breach. Penalties apply when an employer breaches a Fair Work Commission right-to-disconnect order: up to $21,840 (individual) or $109,200 (body corporate) per contravention from 1 July 2026. Calculate the maximum exposure across multiple order breaches.
Unreasonable out-of-hours contact is not a contravention by itself: s333M is a right to refuse it. A civil penalty applies only for breaching a Fair Work Commission order made under s333P, or for adverse action against an employee who uses the right.
Penalty exposure scenario
Out-of-hours contact on its own is not a breach. Section 333M gives employees a right to refuse unreasonable contact — it doesn't make the contact unlawful or fineable. A civil penalty only applies if the employer breaches an order the Fair Work Commission makes to settle a right-to-disconnect dispute (s333P), or takes adverse action against an employee for using the right (general protections, s340). This calculator estimates the maximum for breaching an FWC order.
Maximum exposure for breaching the order
$109,200
Employer exposure: $109,200 ($109,200 × 1 breach)
Penalty unit rate: $364 (from 1 July 2026). Body corporate = 300 units = $109,200 per contravention. Individual = 60 units = $21,840 per contravention. The higher 1,500-unit maximum for larger companies applies to underpayment-related contraventions, not to breaching a right-to-disconnect order. Maximums are rarely imposed in full — courts apply discretion. Adverse action for using the right is a separate general protections claim with its own penalties and compensation.
How the penalty stacks
- No penalty for the contact itself. s333M lets an employee refuse unreasonable out-of-hours contact. Sending the email or making the call is not a contravention.
- Step 1: a dispute and an FWC order. If the employer and employee can't resolve a dispute about contact, either can apply to the Fair Work Commission (s333N). The Commission can order the employer to stop unreasonable contact, or the employee to stop unreasonably refusing (s333P). It can't fine anyone or order compensation.
- Step 2: breaching the order. Each separate breach of the order is a contravention: up to $109,200 for a company or $21,840 for an individual. Managers knowingly involved can also face the individual maximum (accessorial liability, s550).
- Adverse action is separate. Warning, demoting, cutting shifts or dismissing someone because they refused contact is adverse action under the general protections (s340), with its own penalties and compensation.
- Court discretion. Maximum penalties are rarely imposed in full — courts assess seriousness, prior history, contrition, and impact. But the maximum is the ceiling.
Reasonable vs unreasonable contact
Not all out-of-hours contact contravenes the law. Factors the FWC considers (s.333M(3)): the reason for contact, how intrusive it is, whether the employee is compensated, the employee's role and responsibility, and personal circumstances. A genuinely urgent operational issue may be reasonable. Routine non-urgent contact during personal time generally is not. See the Right to Disconnect Eligibility tool to test specific scenarios.
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