Labor reveals workers would be $5k worse off per year under Dutton’s harsh WFH plan

Labor has revealed Aussie workers would be left thousands of dollars worse off if Peter Dutton gets his way.

Anthony Albanese has warned Peter Dutton’s plan to rein in work from home for public servants could leave employees $5000 a year worse off.

A new analysis of the Coalition’s work from home policies – prepared by Labor – 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 – and even more if living in Sydney or Melbourne.

The research suggests 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.

In Sydney and Melbourne, the costs could be as high as $5789 and $5529 respectively if they were forced back to work, the Albanese Government claims.

Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume first flagged the push earlier this year, claiming public servants were travelling the country in camper vans while “working” and suggesting under a Dutton Government they would be expected in the office “five days a week”.

“We know some departments and agencies are telling stakeholders not to schedule meetings on Mondays or Fridays as there will likely be no one in the office,” Ms Hume said.

“In one instance, a stakeholder travelled to Canberra only to be shown into a meeting room where they were greeted by all departmental participants dialling in from home.”

Anthony Albanese has thrown his support behind WFH. Picture: NewsWire/Damian Shaw

Setting up the work from home debate as a major election issue, the Prime Minister backed in work from home options where appropriate, accusing Peter Dutton of being out of touch with the advantages of work from home options for working mums and dads.

“Well, we know that working from home has had a range of advantages,’’ Mr Albanese said.

“One of those is less time travelling, whether that be in a private motor vehicle or on public transport to and from home. It’s also enabled people to overcome the tyranny of distance in this great country.

“As I’ve travelled around, I’ve met people who have moved into regional Australia and are working in our capital cities. They’re working effectively because they can work online. This is an advantage in modern families that have enabled them to take advantage of it.

“It has also meant, for working families, where both parents are working, they’re able to deal with those issues of working from home – it’s enabled them to work full-time and it has increased workforce participation, particularly for women.

“Peter Dutton has said that, firstly, he has questioned working from home and, of course, these decisions are decisions that are made as well with employers. He has questioned it and he has said that, oh, well, women in particular can just go out and job share.

Mr Dutton recently appeared to relax the policy. Picture: NewsWire/Nikki Short

“Well, people who want to work full-time in order to make sure they can look after their families, this just shows how out of touch Peter Dutton is.”

The number of public servants working from home has surged since the pandemic, with up to 61 per cent of public servants now taking advantage of the option. That compares to just 22 per cent of staff on remote arrangements in 2019.

It’s a different story in the private sector, where only 36 per cent of all Australians regularly work from home, down from 40 per cent at the height of Covid.

But faced with a backlash over the impact of a crackdown on women, Mr Dutton recently appeared to relax the policy, suggesting that rather than expect public servants to return to the office five days a week, he just wanted the numbers reduced back to pre-Covid levels.

“I think they should return to work back to pre-Covid levels, which was about just over 20 per cent of people who work from home,’’ he said.

Peter Dutton wants workers back in the office five days a week.

“I want Australians, particularly those who are working hard at the moment, to know that their tax dollars are being spent efficiently. Which is why I don’t believe that in Canberra, 61 per cent of the public servants who are working in Canberra should be working from home.”

Mr Albanese said that flexibility in workplaces had brought substantial benefits.

“Peter Dutton wants to do two things when it comes to public servants – one is question working from home, but secondly, he’s also said, ‘I want you to be at home seven days a week, 24 hours a day’, because he’s going to sack 36,000 public servants,’’ Mr Albanese said.

“He couldn’t even rule out sacking people who work for the national emergency management agency that’s been established under my Government that’s done such an important job.

“I visited Services Australia in Brisbane this week – they have literally 1000 people working on providing disaster relief payments, on providing assistance, who have come through the floods. In Hervey Bay, where I visited this week, there were 15 public servants working out of a temporary facility, essentially a caravan-type facility, in order to provide that support on the ground for that community.

Labor says workers will be $5000 worse off if they're forced to return to the office full time.

“The idea that there are people sitting around in Canberra doing nothing just shows how out of touch Peter Dutton is, and he needs to explain where the 36,000 cuts will come from – NEMA, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, where we’ve had to employ thousands of people because people who (have) served our country in our uniform, defending our nation, were not getting the entitlements that they were due because they simply weren’t being processed by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.”

Mr Albanese said that forcing everyone to attend the office five days a week could also increase traffic and congestion.

“The figures which are there are actually more if you are living in Sydney or Melbourne. The fact is that people who are working from home are providing less traffic congestion, whether that be on the buses, in their cars, less crowding on public transport as well. It makes an enormous difference,’’ he said.

“It makes a difference to them in terms of their hip pocket, but also makes a difference for people who are travelling into work, if there are more people doing that.

“These are sensible suggestions, have come together from employers and employees and what Peter Dutton has done is thrown all of that up, said that public servants – this is another policy borrowed from somewhere else – Peter Dutton needs to come up with some policies of his own.”

Originally published as Labor reveals workers would be $5k worse off per year under Dutton’s harsh WFH plan