3 months ago
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Labor considered a policy to protect working-from-home rights before the May federal election but abandoned the push to avoid taking attention from then-opposition leader Peter Dutton’s unpopular plan to call public servants back to the office.
Two federal sources confirmed to this masthead that the idea of protecting people who work remotely from career penalties was floated within Labor before the election, building on the government’s 2023 changes that gave employees a legal right to ask to work from home.
Then-opposition leader Peter Dutton was forced to backflip on his work from home policy.Credit: James Brickwood
The revelation that federal Labor saw the policy as a potential vote-winner comes after Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan pledged to give workers in her state the right to work from home at least two days a week in an attempt to reach frustrated voters before the state election this year.
Allan’s plan has divided opinion, with business groups saying the proposal is a top-down intervention into workplaces that will frustrate career development and hamper productivity, while tech bosses and unions said working from home was useful.
Federal Labor’s plan never became written party policy, but would have differed from Allan’s because it was intended to focus on protecting against discrimination for people who choose not to be based in an office.
The Coalition, under Dutton, announced in early March that it would force public servants, many of whom work from home at least some of the time, to return to the office five days a week. The Liberal leader was forced to backflip on his policy a month later because of its unpopularity.
“The new proposal was no longer needed because of Dutton,” a government source said on the condition of anonymity.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil backed Allan’s proposal but stopped short of suggesting there was a federal need for new work-from-home laws.
“We do think that given we’ve got the flexible work rights in the Fair Work Act, it’s important to see how those are operating and that they’re operating in an effective and fair way,” she said.
Businesses, however, expressed concern about Allan’s proposal. Flight Centre chief executive Graham Turner said many jobs could not be done from home, and he told staff last year the default position for employees was to work in the office.
“It ends up being very unequal and non-egalitarian,” he said.
Turner also pointed to the effect on younger people in the workforce who, when working from home, have little opportunity to learn from peers and build relationships.
“[It] might not affect the public service, but certainly in the private sector, which is very competitive in most fields, you’ll have a very detrimental effect,” he said.
Business leaders, including Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black, urged the Allan government to reconsider its plan.
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“If you have a prescription from government, a very top-down, one-size-fits-all, heavy-handed prescriptive approach, then you reduce the scope to deliver that flexibility … it is, to our mind, unnecessary and undesired regulation,” Black said.
Australian Industry Group chief Innes Willox also described the legislation as a “political thought bubble”.
“International companies look at this with askance. Nowhere else in the world has this even been contemplated,” he said.
Not all businesses are against the concept. Chief executive of software firm Employment Hero Ben Thompson said the company’s remote-first policy since 2020 has been “unbelievably positive”.
“We’ve found the best talent from all over the globe and found it to be a more inclusive environment for parents, carers, people with disabilities, and anyone outside the CBD bubble,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth said the Albanese government believed flexible working arrangements benefited workers and employers, but gave no indication it would seek to make further changes. The spokeswoman did not comment specifically on the campaign policy plan.
“Our Secure Jobs Better Pay changes have strengthened access to flexible working arrangements meaning workers can achieve better work life balance and employers can benefit from better productivity,” she said.
In 2022, then-workplace minister Tony Burke, brought in laws that provide greater scope for employees to request flexible work under an amendment to the Fair Work Act.
The changes, which began operating in 2023, gave employees further grounds to make work-from-home requests, such as during pregnancy or when experiencing domestic violence. Employers also have to follow a more detailed procedure that involves genuinely attempting to reach an agreement with employees.
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