ACTU survey prompts new deal for hybrid workforce.

 

More than 80 per cent of workers want to continue working from home in some capacity, but unions believe more protections will be required to facilitate it without discrimination or loss of pay and conditions.

 

According to a survey of 11,000 employees by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the number of workers who spent most of their days at home leapt from 12 per cent before the pandemic to 31 per cent in September, with about the same number reporting they worked once a week (nine per cent) or once a month (six per cent) at home.

 

Eighty-one per cent of workers said they would like to work from home if they were provided with enough support and 47 per cent said they were more productive at home.

 

But working from home has imposed an average $530 in additional expenses on each worker and about a third (32 per cent) reported an increased workload.

 

In a report released alongside the survey, the ACTU said that a working-from-home charter should make clear that “the rights and benefits of those now working at home not be less favourable than what they were prior to the move to home-based work, and that working from home not be grounds for discrimination”.

 

Christian Porter, the federal industrial relations minister, recently encouraged companies to bring their staff back to the office “as quickly as possible” where safe to do so as part of efforts to restore the normal functioning of the economy.

 

Photo: Pinterst