Work-from-home Rights in Australia

By Sue Ellson

The “Work-from-home battle begins – and the decision that could affect millions‘” in The Age by Angus Thompson and Rachel Clun talks about Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke initiating a review and changes to industry awards.

So, is this possible? What does the research suggest?

Teleworkability (work-from-home) – around 41% of full time jobs and 35% of part time jobs in Australia can be changed to exclusively work-from-home and this option favours women as around 45.7% women have teleworkable jobs compared to 32.9% of men as about 60% of female employment being concentrated in administrative, clerical, teaching and customer-service jobs. The higher per capita GDP, the greater the teleworkability
https://theconversation.com/teleworkability-in-australia-41-of-full-time-and-35-of-part-time-jobs-can-be-done-from-home-140723
Working from home percentage – The “Families in Australia Survey: Towards COVID Normal” found that among the employed survey respondents, 67% were sometimes or always working from home, compared to 42% pre-COVID. Among parents surveyed who were working from home, 22% were always or often actively caring for children while working, while 15% of parents were passively doing so. This was especially true for mothers, of whom 23% were often actively caring for children while working compared to 15% of fathers.” https://aifs.gov.au/media/two-thirds-australians-are-working-home
Request for flexible work – If you’ve worked for an employer continuously for 12 months, under the Fair Work Act you have the right to ask for flexibility https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/requests-for-flexible-working-arrangements
Benefits of Working from home – “Enabling workers to attend to family and other personal responsibilities, reducing work-family conflict, and increasing quality time spent with children (Troup & Rose, 2012). It also helps employees escape the noise and distractions of open-plan office environments (Sander, 2019). Mutual benefits, include increased productivity, decreased turnover (Bloom et al., 2015) and greater work satisfaction (Dockery & Bawa, 2014) and may improve subjective wellbeing through greater autonomy, control over one’s work schedule, better work-life balance, less time spent commuting and reduced fatigue levels (Song & Gao, 2018).” https://psychology.org.au/for-members/publications/inpsych/2020/june-july-issue-3/perks-and-pitfalls-of-working-from-home-(1)
Pitfalls of Working from home – “Working from home has been associated with a range of detrimental outcomes, including decreased social interaction, difficulties psychologically detaching from work, tendency to overwork, stress, depression, and anxiety. Working from home can also hinder team effectiveness and creativity, and result in fewer career opportunities (Sander, 2019). Song and Gao (2018) found that working at home is associated with a higher likelihood of experiencing work-related stress and negative affect. Australians who work from home at least some of the time experience greater difficulties switching off than those who don’t work from home.” https://psychology.org.au/for-members/publications/inpsych/2020/june-july-issue-3/perks-and-pitfalls-of-working-from-home-(1)
Hours per week history – In the 1800s, most Australians worked up to 14 hours a day, six days a week. There was no sick leave, no holiday leave, and employers could sack you at any time, without a reason and the unions negotiated change. In 1916, the Eight Hours Act was passed in Victoria and NSW, and it took until 1948 for the Commonwealth Arbitration Court to approve a 40-hour, five-day working week for all Australians (76 years ago). In December 1981, a union campaign led to metal workers winning a 38-hour working week which is now the ‘standard’ in Australia https://www.awu.net.au/work-week
Four Day Work Week – research from ADP® Research Institute’s People at Work 2023: A Global Workforce View, found that three in ten Australian workers (30%) think that a four-day week will be the norm in their industry within the next five years
https://www.adpri.org/assets/people-at-work-2023-a-global-workforce-view
Mandatory Office Hours – 40 per cent of employers are enforcing days in the office because they believe it is better to have meetings face to face; 37 per cent said employee productivity is improved at the office, and 34 per cent find it hard to maintain corporate culture. Employees were required in the office four days a week by 28 per cent of businesses, 26 per cent said three days a week, 12 per cent require two days a week and 2 per cent require employees to attend only a single day. Just 19 per cent of businesses surveyed required employees in the office for all five days. Employers are facing some staff resignations as 31% report having already lost at least one employee and 40% expect staff to leave due to in-office requirements. https://www.roberthalf.com/au/en/about/press/87-australian-companies-have-implemented-mandatory-office-days-staff
Hybrid Work – “The research overwhelmingly shows that some work is better done at home and some from the office. The sweet spot is a combination of both. And when we get it right, it drives up employee performance, job satisfaction and productivity. More women than men work from home. Additional cohorts, including LGBTIQ+ and introverts, also report that they perform better remotely. And so we’re at risk of undoing all the progress we’ve made around diversity and inclusion. The No.1 reason employees like to work from home is not the load of washing that they can do between meetings, but the money they can save in a cost-of-living crisis.” https://www.theage.com.au/business/workplace/getting-back-to-the-office-comes-at-a-cost-but-who-will-pay-20231129-p5enna.html
Commuting Time – According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, “The number of people who used public transport to get to work more than halved from 1.25 million in 2016 to just over half a million in 2021. The train remained the most popular method of public transport with around 300,000 commuters on Census day, followed by 213,000 people who took the bus. Working from home had the largest increase of all responses with around one in five employed people over 15 years working from home on the day of the 2021 Census – an increase of over 2 million people since the 2016 Census.” https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/australias-journey-work
Flexibility – “Consistently and unsurprisingly, flexibility remains one of the top benefits of remote work for 67 percent of remote workers, alongside “I have more time because I don’t commute” (63 percent) and “Flexibility to live where I choose“ (60 percent).” https://buffer.com/state-of-remote-work/2023
Parents and Carers – “Emerging estimates suggest that in the midst of the pandemic, between two thirds and three quarters of Australian employees were working from home some or all of the time. Being able to work remotely enables them to maintain their working hours and essentially, to stay in the workforce. This brings obvious benefits to their employers who in return, receive commitment and loyalty from their staff with caring responsibilities and reduced costs on recruitment and training of new staff.” https://carersandemployers.org.au/uploads/main/News/CarersEmployers_Briefing1-Remote-Work-Sept-2020.pdf
Work / Life Balance – “Pay remains important but employees are placing a higher value on their work-life balance and wellbeing which flexibility fosters. Employers have an opportunity to enhance productivity and win the war for talent if they engage with their workforce and co-design new ways of working with their employees.” https://www.deloitte.com/au/en/services/risk-advisory/perspectives/making-fair-work-flexwork.html
People with Disability – “More parents, people with a disability or health condition and carers have joined the workforce thanks to the COVID-19-induced shift to remote work and the strong labour market, new CEDA research has found. The analysis of 2022 Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey data found workforce participation in jobs where people could work from home jumped by 8.5 percentage points for women with young children and nearly six percentage points for people with a disability or health condition from 2019 to 2022. These groups now also work from home at similar rates to other workers.” https://www.ceda.com.au/NewsAndResources/MediaReleases/Economy/Remote-work-has-boosted-employment-for-parents-and
Gender Balance, Mutually Beneficial Outcomes, Workplace Safety – “Working from home policies can also promote a more gender-balanced workforce. Working from home represents a potential overall gain to society, and there is a strong case to allow workers and firms to negotiate mutually beneficial outcomes. This negotiation will happen largely at the individual (contracts) or firm level (workplace policies), and outside the formal workplace relations system.” https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/working-from-home

Where to from here?

If the Fair Work Commission is going to investigate this across multiple industries and awards, as far as I can tell, there are a number of areas that require specific analysis and investigation.

Firstly, it should closely examine the Working From Home Research Paper completed by the Productivity Commission – there is no point reinventing the wheel here.

The pandemic was very much a ‘forced experiment’ because many of the options to work-from-home existed before the pandemic but were not taken up. Now that people have seen some of the perks and pitfalls, there is more to work through.

We are currently at a point of significant change and any ‘blanket’ rules are likely to have unintended consequences. However, we are at a point where these discussions need to occur and to find a way forward that doesn’t disadvantage people who need to be present at a workplace.

In my view, we need to discuss the four day work week at the same time, because this will give all workers some extra flexibility. I understand that this is a major change but we have learnt to manage all types of leave throughout the year and with various scheduling tools available, this is a lever that employers may be reluctant to try but it may be the most equitable.

One of the major concerns I have for the work-from-home environment is that people who are starting a career will miss a lot of the socialising and informal learning that can occur in a workplace. For this reason, there will need to be new models to bridge this gap – for example, there might be a way to have a distributed workforce meeting in small groups rather than at a central office and more closer peer and mentor support for new hires.

There are significant changes for local economies and central business districts, so it is going to require a whole-of-government approach, not just labour laws. Likewise, if more work is completed with online tools, reliable cyber security and data management systems will need to be in place.

Personally, I cannot see us returning to workplaces full time in the future. That horse has bolted. If we do not legislate, there is the potential for unfair practices to take place without consequences.

In an ideal world, the relationship between employee and employer would be respectful and flexible on both sides but without the rule of law, it cannot be enforced.
Sue Ellson

I suspect that this possible review will aim to provide a logical rationale for a future direction and I trust it will include an international analysis as well as reliable Australian research so that hopefully, we can address multiple workplace issues with modest changes to the Fair Work Act and any Awards that preserves the rights of both employers and employees.

Also, there are already some provisions in the Fair Work Act for requesting flexibility after 12 months of continuous service, so perhaps reducing this time frame to three months (completed probationary period) could be an option.

I have shared a variety of information on the topics above (see below) – but if you would like any further comment, please contact me directly.

Social Media Post

WORK-FROM-HOME RIGHTS // In Australia, there are existing laws around requesting workplace flexibility – but there is also research being done to consider work from home legislation…

I have compiled some research on this topic at https://sueellson.com/blog/work-from-home-rights-in-australia/ and you may be interested to know:

⭐ around 41% of full time jobs and 35% of part time jobs in Australia can be changed to exclusively work-from-home and this option favours women as around 45.7% women have teleworkable jobs compared to 32.9% of men

⭐ The “Families in Australia Survey: Towards COVID Normal” found that among the employed survey respondents, 67% were sometimes or always working from home, compared to 42% pre-COVID

⭐ Working from home has been associated with a range of detrimental outcomes, including decreased social interaction, difficulties psychologically detaching from work, tendency to overwork, stress, depression, and anxiety

⭐ research from ADP® Research Institute’s People at Work 2023: A Global Workforce View, found that three in ten Australian workers (30%) think that a four-day week will be the norm in their industry within the next five years

⭐ 40% of employers expect staff to leave due to in-office requirements

⭐ The number of people who used public transport to get to work more than halved from 1.25 million in 2016 to just over half a million in 2021

⭐ Working from home policies can also promote a more gender-balanced workforce

In my view, we need to discuss the four day work week at the same time as working from home because this will give all workers (including those that must work on-site) some extra flexibility.

I also believe in the significant value of working close to home.

What model do you think will be most popular going forward?

#workfromhome #careers #sueellson

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