UPDATED: The Coalition is planning to require all public servants to work from the office putting an end to generous work-from-home arrangements.
This is part of Peter Dutton's election promises surrounding public servants, where he previously pledged to save up to A$6 billion per year by cutting up to 36,000 workers.
The Liberal government’s new promise to slash work-from-home arrangements was announced by Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume at the Menzies Research Centre in Sydney.
“Led by the Community and Public Sector Union, Labor has made work from home a right for the individual, not an arrangement that works for all. This is unsustainable,” she said.
“This is common sense policy that will instil a culture that focuses on the dignity of serving the public, a service that relies on the public to fund it, and a service that respects that funding by ensuring they are as productive as possible.”
According to Hume, the most recent consensus of public service workers shows that 61% work from home sometime, up from 55% in 2022.
Commonwealth workers have “unlimited” work-from-home days under a pay deal negotiated with the Commonwealth Public Sector Union.
This deal lasts until 2027 but Hume said she thinks the Dutton government can get around it.
"Exceptions can and will be made, of course; but they will be made where they work for everyone rather than be enforced on teams by an individual."
These plans being proposed by the Coalition are reminiscent of what is being implemented in the United States by Donald Trump’s administration, with a focus on removing diversity initiatives and cutting government waste.
"It seems that every other idea is being stolen from the United States, and they clearly have no idea about how working families manage modern life," Finance Minister Katy Gallagher told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast.
Gallagher also argued that these rules for public servants could have a ripple effect into other “modern workplaces” and have a greater impact on women.
"They allow women, in particular, to manage some of the other responsibilities they have outside of the workplace.
"Women have a right to feel at risk."
When asked if the return to office orders would disadvantage women, Dutton dismissed the claims and said there were “plenty of job-sharing opportunities”.
"It doesn't discriminate against people on the basis of gender. It is for public servants,” he said.
“It doesn't have an impact, and we are not going to shy away from the fact that this is taxpayer money.”
Dutton said that the new deal would only seek to force people to return to the office that had been “refusing” to do so and there were some roles that were appropriate to work from home.
This has come amidst a new report being published by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) on the gender pay gap. I found that nearly three-quarters of all employers had a pay gap in favour of men.
According to Dutton, the pay gap narrowed under the previous coalition and would continue to do so if elected.
