Bosses blast new WFH rights for public servants

Private sector employers say the new public sector deals show Labor and unions out of touch

Opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the latest agreements enhanced what were already “extremely generous” conditions.

Employers have blasted generous new working from home rights secured by federal public servants, declaring they demonstrate how “out of touch” the Albanese Government, the public service and their unions are from workplace reality.

More than half the Commonwealth public sector’s 170,000-strong workforce have gained access to generous working from home rights after new pay deals were overwhelmingly endorsed by employees at Services Australia and the Department of Home Affairs.

The new rights include no formal cap on the number of working from home days each week and a “bias towards approving requests”.

According to results released on Wednesday, Services Australia recorded a 93.4 per cent yes vote, with 80 per cent of the workforce participating in a ballot, while Home Affairs saw a 97.1 per cent endorsement, with 84.16 per cent of eligible employees voting.

Ballot results on Tuesday confirmed that Australian Taxation Office employees had voted up their agreement.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the lesson from the new agreements “is almost certainly that the private sector won’t look to the public service for advice on making their workplaces more productive, innovative or collaborative”.

“For those who have no choice but to be at work - truck drivers, plumbers, teachers, paramedics, factory workers, chefs, doctors - it is just a nauseating confirmation of how far out of touch the federal public service, their unions and unfortunately the government are from workplace reality.” he told The Australian.

“Business leaders look at this too and can only shake their heads. The last thing we need is for their stay at home first attitude to infect our broader economy. “

Federal public servants have secured new working from home rights in new pay deals (stock image).

Community and Public Section Union national secretary Melissa Donnelly said the comments by Mr Willox were “deeply offensive to APS (Australian Public Service) employees who work extremely hard for the community day in day out.

“It also ignores the reality of how effective working from home has been for employees and employers, not just the public sector. CEDA research last week showed that working from home has improved workforce participation, particularly for a whole range of employees.

“There are really substantial benefits and win-win opportunities for both employees and employers and if business groups can’t see that then they are not representing their members very well.”

Opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the latest agreements enhanced what were already “extremely generous” pay and conditions for public servants.

Senator Cash said the working from home rights “go much further than conditions afforded to many other working Australians” and it would be incumbent on the Albanese Government to ensure they result in “value for money” for taxpayers and increased productivity.

“Australians expect public servants to provide exceptional value for the generally high salaries they are paid and it is imperative that they are provided with high levels of service when they interact with those government departments,” she said.

Ms Donnelly said Senator Cash was “out of step” with developments in federal public sector workplaces in recent years”.

“During Covid, and since that period of time, we’ve had lots of employees at various points working from home,” she said.

“And our research, conducted in conjunction with universities, has shown that employees are just as productive so I think the Opposition are out of touch with what’s actually happening in APS workplaces and how hard APS employees continue to work, whether they’re at home or in the office, to deliver to the community.”

Under the working from home provisions, which the federal government and the CPSU expect to apply across 103 agreements, agency caps that in practice have limited the right to work from home to two or three days a week are scrapped.

Agencies are required to consider written requests for working from home on a case-by-case basis, with a “bias towards approving requests”.

An agency head can refuse a request on “reasonable business grounds”, including that it would be too costly, would have a significant negative impact on customer service, or that it would likely ­result in a significant loss in ­efficiency or productivity.

An employee who has their ­request rejected has the right to appeal to the Fair Work ­Commission.

Ms Donnelly said some employees would increase their working from home days after being limited by either caps or “just the haphazard approach taken by their agency”.

She said there had been a range of different approaches across the federal public service, including within agencies, to employees working from home.

“What we have wanted to see is clear rights and a more consistent approach to how working from home applications are considered and the basis on which they can be approved or otherwise,” she said.

“These requests will be assessed on an individual basis. There will be differences for employees but what we will see is consistency in how applications are considered and processed.”