The Queensland government jobs where most people can work from home

Thousands of Queensland government employees still work from home – some up to five days a week – after the COVID pandemic ushered in a new era of remote work.

And the union representing thousands of public servants has revealed it will fight to let them keep doing it.

In 2023, 51 per cent of all Queensland public sector workers clocked up some of their hours from home, up slightly from 49 per cent in 2022, according to the latest Working for Queensland survey.

Staff at the Office of Industrial Relations and the State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning department were most likely to log in remotely, with 82 per cent of employees in both departments saying they worked from home.

Across the public sector, among those who worked remotely, almost half spent two days a week outside the office.

The Housing Department had the highest rate of remote workers reporting they spent five days a week at home or another location.

While 59 per cent of Queensland’s public servants who took advantage of remote work options admitted it was easier to collaborate with colleagues face-to-face, 12 per cent agreed with the statement: “I come into the office because I am told to, but I don’t perceive any benefit”.

One in 10 worried they would miss out on promotions.

The situation was radically different before the pandemic.

In 2019, when public servants were quizzed, the survey did not use the phrase “work from home”, and public servants were asked if they used flexible working options – 56 per cent said they did.

Of those employees, just 13 per cent listed “telecommuting”.

In 2020, when lockdowns and work-from-home orders hit, 59 per cent used flexible workplace options, and out of those workers, 38 per cent reported telecommuting, or remote working.

In the 2022 and 2023 surveys, all public servants were specifically asked if they worked from home – with about half saying they did.

Together union secretary Alex Scott said the union was working with the government and Public Service Commission on making working-from-home decisions on a group basis, rather than individually.

Scott said employees were also concerned about certainty, particularly when bosses could change work-from-home agreements at short notice.

“That has significant impacts on people, particularly working families where people make arrangements around school pick-up or childcare,” he said.

“The industrial processes haven’t caught up.”

A Public Sector Commission spokeswoman said there was no minimum number of days for public servants to work in the office, and there were different arrangements across the sector.

“Flexible work arrangements should be regularly discussed by teams, in order to meet the needs of customers, the organisation, employees and the team,” she said.

In the Australian public service, employees at the four largest federal agencies voted to back a three-year pay deal earlier this year that removed all work-from-home restrictions.

But the private sector is battling to bring staff back to city office towers, with return to workplace edicts and incentives.

Last August, 37 per cent of employees worked from home regularly, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with the trend more common among managers and professionals.

While greater flexibility is a boon for many workers, there are concerns the trend hurts CBD cafes and retailers that rely on foot traffic.

About one in three of Queensland’s 244,000 public sector employees work in Brisbane’s inner-city and surrounding suburbs.

Brisbane Times last year revealed the Premier’s department had the happiest public servants in Queensland.