Employers slam ’crazy’ WFH public sector rights

A business group has stepped up the attack on new public sector pay deals, condemning ‘bizarre’ working from home rights.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar says the new working from home rights for public servants are crazy and bizarre”.Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Business groups have stepped up their attacks on generous new working-from-home rights won by federal public servants, calling the rights “crazy” and “bizarre”.

Almost 70 per cent of the ­commonwealth public sector’s 170,000-strong workforce has now gained access to the rights that include no formal cap on the number of working-from-home days each week and a “bias ­towards approving requests”.

Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said the new WFH rights for public servants, which were endorsed by employees at 45 agencies, were consistent with provisions backed by private sector employers.

But Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said the new provisions were “crazy”.

“I think it’s bizarre,” he said. “It’s a complete loss of discipline and control, on the surface of it.

“With a bias to agreeing to requests and no cap, I think you are ceding control, and I don’t know many organisations in the private sector that would be prepared to agree to that – I think that would be truly exceptional.”

Mr McKellar said the government risked “losing oversight of their workforces and workplaces”.

“It’s normalising these incredibly liberal arrangements and it’s not clear what the quid pro quo is, so that’s going to be very difficult for many private sector organisations to digest,” he said

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said this week the new rights were “just a nauseating confirmation of how far out of touch the federal public service, their unions and unfortunately the government are from workplace reality”.

But ACTU secretary Sally McManus said “the negativity and hypocrisy of some employer lobbyists on this issue is astounding”.

“On one hand they call for flexibility, and on the other they rail against it,” she said. “On one hand, they support individual employers negotiating arrangements that suit them, and on the other they criticise these arrangements.

“Given many private sector companies have negotiated work-from-home options that work well … you would think this is something they would welcome.”

Senator Gallagher said flexible arrangements were common and were important for attracting and retaining the best talent.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data for August 2023 shows 37 per cent of employees and 60 per cent of managers and professionals regularly worked from home.

“The APS approach is consistent with what many other employers are allowing in their workplaces,” Senator Gallagher’s spokesperson said.

“The APS supports various forms of flexible employment including part-time work, flexible start and finish times or remote working.

“Flexible arrangements are agreed between an individual employee and their manager.”

Senator Gallagher said the strong vote for the pay deals showed the government had “achieved another successful milestone for employees”.

“When Labor came to office, we said we would bargain in good faith with APS employees and that is exactly what we did. This was in direct contrast to the approach taken by the former Liberal/National Government.”

“Public servants work hard, the Albanese government values their work, and we welcome the strong Yes vote in enterprise agreement ballots so far.”