Government Promises to Remove Criminal Penalties for Employers Calling After-Hours

The government is scrambling to change its own, newly passed, workplace relations laws after finding they still contained criminal penalties for employers who breached the “right to disconnect” provisions—a new law to restrict employers from contacting employees after work. The legislation passed the Senate on Thursday evening, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is now saying it will be amended in the lower house to remove the sanctions. He played down the significance of the problem, saying: “It won’t mean anything, it’ll just mean we fix it up through separate legislation because this legislation isn’t due to take effect for many months, so it won’t mean anything.”...