Australia has imposed ‘right to disconnect’ law for workers, but should Hong Kong follow suit?
- Australian workers can refuse to respond to employers’ attempts to contact them outside work hours, but Hong Kong should not copy law, industry figures say
Hong Kong is not ready to follow Australia in allowing employees to ignore calls and emails from their bosses outside office hours, as responding swiftly and working overtime were part of the city’s success, according to human resources experts and the business sector.
A new “right to disconnect” law came into force in Australia on Monday, allowing millions of workers to refuse to monitor, read or respond to their employers’ attempts to contact them outside work hours – unless that refusal is deemed “unreasonable”.
But Chow yee-ping, managing director of ACTS Consulting Co, noted that given Hong Kong was in an economic downturn, now was not an ideal time to launch schemes promoting labour welfare.
“One of the biggest strengths of Hong Kong is flexibility, which includes adaptable scheduling,” she said, adding this was especially important for the financial sector to communicate with countries in different time zones.
She added that one of the reasons Hong Kong had such a vigorous work spirit was the overtime put in by employees, although she admitted long working hours was a problem.
Professor Lam King-sun, director of the Teaching and Learning Centre at Lingnan University, said Hong Kong was an export-oriented economy that also focused on trading and international business.