The Australian government passed a new workplace law for the right to disconnect. This means employees can ignore calls, emails, and messages from their employer outside of work hours without fear of punishment. This is a significant change that all retailers need to understand.

How the Right to Disconnect Works

While details remain to be determined, the law means staff can't be penalized for reasonably not responding to calls, emails, etc. during off hours like nights, weekends, and PTO.

What does it reasonably mean? No one knows yet still.  

Key points:

• Employers cannot fine or discipline employees for not responding after hours
• Employees can seek orders from the Fair Work Commission to prevent punishment
• Employers could be fined for breaching these orders

Although I doubt it will help us, most of us are surprised as this proposed law is much less strict for employers than passed in some European countries.

Why This Matters for Retailers

For retailers that operate physical stores with set opening hours, the immediate problem may be that the right to disconnect will have enormous implications for scheduling staff and communicating about shifts.

Retailers will need:

• More carefully plan schedules in advance
• Possibly limit last-minute schedule changes
• Outline exceptions for emergency contacts

Exactly how it would work, of course, remains to be seen as what parliament said, what the courts say, etc; remains to be seen.

What retailers need to know

Hopefully, the retail industry groups can get feedback on what retailers need to know.

• Definitions around what is "reasonable."
• Clarify how far in advance schedule changes will be communicated
• What constitutes an emergency exception?
• What happens when a shift swap occurs?

Rostering With the Right to Disconnect

Our rostering software needs to be amended, but we are unsure exactly how. When the details come up, I can tell you more. If you have any ideas or requirements, please let me know.

With some forethought and policy updates, retailers must know how to comply with the new right-to-disconnect laws.

What is often a revelation to our new clients is how much they can save time and money from our rostering system. Unlike many, it unifies rostering into a single platform, permitting you to see your shop’s retail performance as you have never seen it before. It allows you to ensure there are enough employees on-site. What it does is it comes with a forecasting tool that helps you to organise accurate schedules. This ensures you have skilled employees available and shows you when they need to be at work. As it is centralised, it is easy to see who is working at any given time.

One report that I recommend you study while creating a roster is the traffic analysis report by the hour of your shop, which you will find above.

You can find it here.

Put in dates from a previous period that you feel will give you typical results for the roster you are trying to create. Now, you will get a colour-coded analysis showing the activity in the shop divided into four groups with red for the busy period. This graphically shows you when you can expect to be busy.

Why wait? Give it a try now.

A customer asks you a question, and you need to brief the person on duty that day, who is that person. If you use the automatic roster system supplied free in our software, you can find out.  Instantly!

In the cash register, go to the hotkeys on the right.

Click Roster Enquiry.

Then enter in the details required, and it's there. You will see if the shift is covered and who is scheduled to be there in real-time. 

Please give it a go!