A right to disconnect: what would new rules mean for employees and bosses?

On average, employees in Australia do 5.4 hours of unpaid work each week – or 280 hours of unpaid overtime a year. Reforms could introduce the right to disconnect. Photograph: Alamy

A phone call after you’ve left work. An email you need to check on a Sunday. A stream of texts over the weekend about a new project.

Increasingly, Australians are seeing their work seep into their home life – and now the federal government is making moves to tighten how much bosses can contact employees out of working hours.