Employees are working less unpaid overtime thanks to labour laws protecting their free time, new research shows.

The average full-time worker would have worked an extra $4500 per year in unpaid overtime if rates remained the same as they were before Labor’s right to disconnect laws were introduced, according to a report from the Australian Institute’s Centre for Future Work on Wednesday.

While there could be other factors at play in the reduction in unpaid overtime, report author Dr Fiona Macdonald said the legislation appeared to be having the intended impact.

In 2023, the survey found full-time employees were working on average 6.2 hours of unpaid overtime each week.

Following the law’s implementation in 2024, that number dipped to 4.1 hours . In this year’s poll of 1001 workers,

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