ALP says returning to the office would cost workers $5000 a year
The Albanese government says workers will be left almost $5000 a year worse off if they are forced back to the office under a plan pushed by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. TAKE OUR POLL.
NSW
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Peter Dutton’s campaign to stop public servants working from home full-time has come under fire from Labor, with the Albanese government undertaking analysis claiming workers will be left almost $5000 a year worse off if they are forced back to the office.
The analysis of a key Coalition election policy claims workers will be worse off by about $4976 a year if they are forced back to the office between three and five days a week – more if living in Sydney or Melbourne.
Commuters would also spend an extra two hours in the car each week — or more than 97 hours a year — if work-from-home arrangements ended, the analysis has shown.
Labor drew on publicly available data to find that more than one in three employees were currently working from home “to some extent”.
Australian workers were on average working nearly 19 hours a week at home, or about two days a week, with those commuting spending 30.5 minutes travelling one way.
The analysis found commuters saved more than two hours in travel time a week by working from home, or 97 hours a year.
The yearly transport cost – including $20 a day parking – was about $4976 a year.
In some cities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, the costs were higher, with workers facing a yearly cost of $5789 and $5529 respectively if they were forced back to work, the analysis showed.
Executive director of Business Sydney Paul Nicolaou told The Sunday Telegraph “many CBD businesses still haven’t fully recovered from the shift to remote work”.
“Sydney’s CBD office occupancy is around 76 per cent of pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
“Monday and Fridays are weak and any attempt to get workers back to their offices would be welcome by businesses in the CBD … many businesses are down by 20 to 30 per cent on income compared to pre-pandemic levels.”
Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume earlier this month declared it would be an expectation of a Dutton government that public servants would be required to work from the office “five days a week”.
The declaration was seized upon by Minister for Women Katy Gallagher, who said ending working from home would disadvantage working women.
Mr Dutton later said the expectation was that work-from-home levels should return back to what they were pre-Covid.
Employment Minister Murray Watt said ending work-from-home arrangements was an attack on women, workers and paypackets.
“At a time when people are doing it tough, Peter Dutton wants Aussies to pay up to an additional $4976 on transport and parking costs alone every year,” he said.
“His risky work-from-home plan would see average Aussies spend more money and time commuting five days a week.”
Last year NSW Premier Chris Minns told state government workers they should work primarily from the office.
Originally published as ALP says returning to the office would cost workers $5000 a year
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