Coronavirus: bid to set rules for working at home

The ACTU will devise a new claim on behalf of white-collar employees working from home.

Experts predict the post-COVID workplace will see the emergence of a hybrid working week model where employees work some days in the office and some from home. Picture: AFP

The ACTU will devise a new claim on behalf of white-collar employees working from home, as a union survey finds a ­majority of people working remotely are struggling to achieve balance between their work and home life.

Members of the ACTU executive will meet on Wednesday to discuss the new claim and the results of the survey, which was commissioned by the peak union body after the COVID-19 pandemic saw an explosion in the number of people required to work from home.

The survey, which sought insights into workers’ attitudes to working from home ahead of remote work becoming a more permanent feature of the labour market, found 55 per cent of ­respondents were having problems achieving a healthy separation between work and home life. The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work estimates up to two million workers could feasibly work full-time from home as of today, and estimates the number could eventually rise to four million, or 30 per cent of the workforce.

The new claim was flagged by the ACTU secretary Sally McManus in June. She said many employers would want working from home to continue post-pandemic.

“I think the union movement in this country has got to get ahead of this,” she told a Centre for Future Work webinar. “We can’t let employers deal with this as a means to further cut jobs.”

Ms McManus said she ­accepted there might be benefits for workers in working from home. “This is one of our key areas that we know that employers are going to want to move to, and we’re going to want to involve working people in a whole discussion in terms of building a workers’ claim for what do we say about working from home.

“What should be our principles, our expectations from employers, that we can unite around to push for across all so-called white-collar work, so that we can unite around that.”

Experts predict the post-COVID workplace will see the emergence of a hybrid working week model where employees work some days in the office and some from home.

Alison Pennington, the Centre For Future Work’s senior economist, said last month that COVID-era labour protections were silent on the risks and costs mounting on employees in the home. “These include upfront and ongoing costs of running a home office, long-hours working, income and job insecurity for employees with high caring demands, and the absence of national work, health and safety measures,” she said.