‘Unworkable vote grab’: top CEOs take aim at Jacinta Allan’s WFH revolution
Australia's biggest retailers employing more than 500,000 workers have united to fight the Victorian Premier’s radical out-of-office plans and union efforts to spread them across the country.
The nation’s biggest retail companies’ chief executives are warning Labor to stay out of their work-from-home arrangements, with the bosses of Woolworths, Coles, Wesfarmers, JB Hi-Fi and others linking up to oppose Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s radical out-of-office plans and union efforts to spread them across the country.
Labelling the move a naked grab for votes, unworkable and a shocking overreach into the running of private sector businesses, the attack raises the heat surrounding the work-from-home debate from the chief executives who collectively employ more than 500,000 Australians.
Wesfarmers chief executive and managing director Rob Scott – whose company is one of Australia’s largest employers with 118,000 staff and whose retail chains Bunnings, Kmart, Target and Officeworks are all headquartered in Victoria – said legislating a work-from-home right of two days a week did not make sense, was impractical and was an unnecessary interference between his company and its staff.
“We have long supported flexibility in the workplace but we don’t think it makes sense trying to regulate it with a one size fits all approach,” Mr Scott said.
“It doesn’t make sense because it’s best to address this at an enterprise level, having regard to the needs of the business, the types of the roles involved, and quite frankly, more than 90 per cent of our team members across Wesfarmers businesses don’t have the ability to work from home, because they either work in stores, distribution or manufacturing facilities … That’s the appropriate way, and to try and regulate it would be quite problematic.”
His criticism was mirrored by Leah Weckert, chief executive of Melbourne-based Coles, which has 115,000 staff.
Ms Weckert said the supermarket chain welcomed flexibility and that its policy was for support staff to be in the office three days a week. But again the balance should be decided by employers and employees.
“We would need to see what the legislation looked like but these sorts of decisions are best placed as agreements made between employers and employees,” Ms Weckert said.
Ms Allan, who faces an election in November next year, has recorded a significant bump in her popularity ratings in the wake of her work-from-home mandate, potentially saving her struggling premiership and building on Anthony Albanese’s successful weaponisation of former Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s pre-election push to get public servants back into the office.
Jim Chalmers and other Labor ministers have refused to smack down Victoria’s attitude to work from home, despite growing concerns it will kill businesses in Melbourne’s CBD.
The ACTU tried to push a nationwide rollout of similar guarantees at the Albanese government’s economic reform roundtable last month.
The chief executive revolt threatens to put Labor at odds with the business community just as the Treasurer and the Prime Minister claim lifting productivity growth is their number one issue this term.
JB Hi-Fi chief executive Terry Smart, whose consumer electronics giant has 16,000 workers with its national headquarters in the Melbourne CBD, told The Australian: “Not sure why the government needs to mandate this, other than to get votes,”
Ms Allan’s pitch to make work from home legally protected for private-sector workers as well as public servants comes amid anger and criticism from retailers over what they allege is mishandling of a violent crime wave in Victoria targeting shops and their staff.
Tim Ford, the head of Treasury Wine Estates, questioned the Victorian government’s focus on work-from-home legislation.
“No doubt I think they have got other things they should be worried about,” said Mr Ford, whose company owns brands such as Penfolds and is a global winemaker with a head office in Melbourne.
Woolworths, led by Amanda Bardwell and which employs 200,000 staff, declined to criticise Ms Allan’s work-from-home plans directly but defended the benefits to a company and workers of being in the office – and that for frontline workers there was no choice but to be in the store.
“I can only just say that as a retailer, our teams are in stores serving customers, and that’s what customers expect that they’re in our stores for,” Ms Bardwell said.
“And so at Woolworths, we look at this in a very different way. Our support teams, we ask them to be in the office two days a week to three days a week. I think it’s important in terms of collaboration, speed of decision making, and actually the team members themselves to have the opportunity to connect in person relationships.”
Mr Smart said it needed to be left to businesses to decide what is right for them and their staff and to drive productivity. “We have the flexibility to do what is right for everyone at the moment and I’m not sure mandating helps that,” the JB Hi-Fi chief executive said.
Melbourne-based Baby Bunting chief executive Mark Teperson. said he thought it was difficult to try to legislate against a “hard and fast outcome that doesn’t take into account the nuance of different businesses in different stages”.
“We employ close to 1600 people across the total business, many of whom work in our stores,” Mr Teperson said.
“Those roles simply can’t be done from home. That doesn’t work in a retail business. And I think from a culture perspective, the other thing that it potentially puts at risk, particularly for new people entering the workforce, is one-on-one time, or human engagement, the water-cooler opportunities to have conversations with people is often where some of the richest learning happens.”
Jack Cowin, founder of Hungry Jack’s, was forthright on the productivity gains and important cultural benefits from workers being at their desks rather than in their pyjamas at home. “I believe that it’s important that people come to the office, whether or not they can do that in three days, four days, five days,” Mr Cowin said. “You need the interaction to create a culture, get things done and create a positive business. Sitting at home, I’m sure people like it … But from a business point of view, you need interaction with people – and you don’t get that sitting at home.”
Victorian Labor is seeking a fourth term in office at the election due on November 28. The most recent Newspoll, based on polling from June 23-30, put Labor on course for victory, leading the Liberals and Nationals 53-47 on a two-party-preferred basis but only a quarter of those polled said the Allan government deserved to be re-elected. Ms Allan had a net satisfaction rating of negative 31 and trailed Liberal leader Brad Battin on the better premier question.
The Premier announced her plan to legislate work-from-home rights for all workers on August 2, about three weeks after the poll was published in The Australian.
Deputy Premier Ben Carroll on Monday defended his government’s plans to legislate work-from-home, despite criticism from business leaders.
He did concede that the government will need to work with businesses to make sure the arrangements are “fit for purpose” and work across different industries, but he showed no signs of backing down in the face of criticism.
“Well, just look at the data and the evidence,” Mr Carroll said.
“Most businesses, most companies have working from home arrangements.
“You’ve seen it widely supported, by the Prime Minister.
“But, we’ll continue to consult. The premier has a business roundtable and we’ll continue to work with, business, making sure that it works for them and that it works for everybody.”
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