Employers could scrap the traditional 9am-5pm work day for employees working from home, as an inquiry at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) continues to investigate flexible working arrangements in Australia.
The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) appeared before the inquiry yesterday, advocating for “make-up time” provisions to be put in place for employees who work from home, as reported by the media.
The organisations will push for an end to the set shifts of 9am-5pm, allowing employees, especially carers, to complete work and meeting working hours around the schedule of responsibilities at home.
In its submission to the FWC, Ai Group suggested it would especially help parents and carers “who wish to spend time with their children when they would otherwise be required to work; and to subsequently ‘make up’ this time at night, after their children have gone to bed”.
ACCI wrote in its submission that employees who are unavailable in the traditional 9am-5pm hours could also start earlier each day.
The submissions, however, received significant backlash from union groups, including the Community and Public Sector Union national secretary, Melissa Donnelly.
She said the proposed reforms is “an outrageous attempt” to reduce the working rights for employees who wish to work from home, “under the guise of modernisation”.
“At a time when many businesses and organisations are working to improve job satisfaction and boost workplace morale through flexible work arrangements, the submissions have completely failed to read the room,” Donnelly said, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) also argued the provisions will particularly impact women and will only disadvantage them more in the workplace.
As women already are not compensated adequately for overtime, on-call work and more, the “make-up time” provisions will create more opportunities for disadvantage, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said.
The findings from the FWC’s inquiry, which began last month, will impact about 2.2 million workers on award wages. The review is expected to make recommendations to the federal government on whether flexible work arrangements should be a legal entitlement.
Around 37 per cent of employed people in Australia regularly work from home, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The trend experienced an uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic, with slightly more women working from home than men.
In 2023, the idea of flexible working arrangements was the main reason Australians worked from home, the ABS data indicated.
Last month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the “work from home” conversation, saying it shouldn’t be a “one size fits all approach”.
The federal government recently passed laws that grant employees the “right to disconnect” from their job outside their working hours.
The Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023 will add the “right to disconnect” after work to the National Employment Standards to “ensure employees are not required to monitor, read or respond to email, telephone calls or any other kinds of communication from an employer outside their working hours”, the explanatory memorandum says.