About 37% of workers are working regularly from home, down from 40% at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, but well above the pre-COVID-19 level of 32%, according to new ABS data.
ANZ's plan to "force" workers to return to the office for half of the working week is "short-sighted", "antiquated" and "punitive", according to the Finance Sector Union, which is also urging members at the RBA to reject a second unilateral bargaining offer.
A worker with inflammatory bowel disease has lost his bid to use the Secure Jobs Act flexible work provisions to resist a request to return to the office 40% of the time, the FWC finding it will boost his employer's ability to lift his productivity and allow others to benefit from his experience.
In the first FWC full bench consideration of Secure Jobs Act flexible work dispute provisions, a worker's application has fallen at the first hurdle because she failed to provide her employer with written reasons and offered "unsatisfactory" evidence about her alleged disability.
The PC has confirmed its provisional view against augmenting unpaid carer's leave and says the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs changes will "make it easier for carers to negotiate flexible work, perhaps obviating the need for extended unpaid carer leave".
The FWC has upheld a major insurance provider's sacking of a work-from-home employee whose keystrokes data revealed inactivity 90% of the time, finding her circumstances "all the more regrettable" given her previous long history of satisfactory service.
Workers should fight for better pay and conditions rather than accept the "overhyped" employer-driven four-day working week, which often results in work intensification and employees losing conditions, according to an IR academic.
The FSU is urging members at NAB to accept a revised "benchmark" agreement offer that will lift their pay by as much as 17.5% and boost the ability to work from home, but the union says the improvements are not enough for it to call off Federal Court action over excessive hours.
The CPSU says an APSC offer that presumes agencies will approve flexibility requests and stops them capping days spent working from home is "ground breaking", but the union is still preparing to take industrial action as it waits for a "considerably improved" pay offer.
