Workplaces foster productivity

Anthony Albanese, who wants working from home to be an election issue, is playing to his base. The most recent Australian Public Service census shows more than 60 per cent of its staff have work from home rights, up from 20 per cent before Covid. The Prime Minister says this is good for commuters and helpful for working mothers – more flexibility in managing competing needs of the office and offspring. It also gives him a way to present Peter Dutton, who wants public service use of the perk back to pre-pandemic levels, as anti-family. But the Opposition Leader did the country a service in putting WFH on the agenda. For a start, it is a white-collar government worker perk. It is not possible for tradespeople, retail workers and many others who have no option but to turn up in the flesh. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that 64 per cent of the workforce did not work from home in 2024.

It is too early to tell how working from home will affect economic growth across time. The Productivity Commission’s current corporate plan makes no mention of staff working from home, although chairwoman Danielle Wood says research suggests “well-managed hybrid has no or even slightly positive effects on worker productivity”. But research to date largely focuses on what workers want. And those who have WFH rights do not want to give it up. But employers, especially of knowledge workers, want people back in the office. Pessimists suggest this is because managers believe staff will skive off if they can. AMP has a new contract that gives it power to monitor work at home by computer use. Optimists argue that people working together physically is good for camaraderie and creativity, and that both are good for the ideas that fix problems, improve services and create new products. This applies especially to young people who need colleagues to inspire them and mentors to guide them. It is why universities, which locked down hard during Covid, encouraged students back to campus and insisted that staff return as soon as possible.

Working from home should not become another codified industrial right without employers having any say in where people they pay actually are. There is already movement towards this. The Fair Work Commission is conducting an inquiry into inserting a work from home clause in the industrial award for private sector clerks. This has a long way to go.

In August, NSW Premier Chris Minns ordered the end of Covid-crisis work from home arrangements for state public sector workers “who are not on the frontline”. Now they are back they should stay there until there is far more evidence that working from home works for the economy.