Bid to have employees’ salaries cut if they work from home

Staff working from home would have their pay cut under a bold suggestion by former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett to boost a return to the office among public sector workers.

Employees working from home would have their salaries cut under a bold suggestion by a former Victorian premier to ­increase the number of public sector workers attending the office.

Jeff Kennett has proposed public servants working from home be paid less than other government employees, such as public healthcare workers and school support staff who “have no alternative but to physically attend their workplace every day”.

Workers could be paid more depending on how often they came into the office.

“Clearly, Victoria’s financial position is such that we cannot afford to be increasing salaries, so the most appropriate method is if a person chooses to work from home, whatever the number of days a week, their salary is reduced by the ­reduction in costs they would have otherwise incurred,” Mr Kennett said.

Jeff Kennett says workers could be paid more depending on how often they came into the office. Picture: Ian Currie

“There will be people making a decision (to work from home) because they don’t have to go through the trauma of driving to and from work, or (taking) the train or something – they save money and it saves them all that stress.”

Mr Kennett said employees working from home were savings thousands of dollars in transport costs, as well as avoiding other stresses related to coming into the workplace, while public sector staff ­required on-site were out of pocket.

He said the government could also look at increasing wages for those public servants to reflect their extra costs, but it could be up to the Independent Remuneration Committee to determine pay adjustments for hybrid-working employees.

Public service employees are currently required to work in the office three days a week.

Public servants working from home would be paid less than other government employees under Jeff Kennett’s proposal.

Mr Kennett said while the work-from-home “divide” ­existed in the public and private sectors, the Victorian public paid the salaries of public servants working from home.

Speaking on 3AW radio on Tuesday, ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said fewer than half of his staff came into the office “on a good day”, with just three quarters of employees working onsite at any time throughout the week.

“We’re in a service industry where a lot of people can work from home pretty successfully,” he said.

But Mr Elliott said he worried about younger workers missing out on mentoring from more experienced colleagues.

Right now, public service employees are required to work in the office three days a week. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“I worry about the cultural implications of this – how do young people learn?” he said.

“You learn by observing others and being in the room with people and seeing how stuff is done. I worry about that.”

A Community and Public Sector Union Victoria spokesman said 80 per cent of the public sector workforce were “field based” and were required to commute to and from their worksites.

He added that productivity improved when employees had flexible work arrangements.

“It would be counter-productive and too costly therefore to have the work-from-home incentive reversed,” he said.

A state government spokesman said: “The government will not be taking advice from Jeff Kennett, whose Liberal government closed hospitals and schools and sacked teachers and nurses.”

The state opposition was also invited to comment.