5 days ago
BREAKING NEWS Penalty rates and BREAKS could be on the chopping block under new work from home rules
Professionals working from home could be denied the right to take breaks or be paid penalty rates for weekends and public holidays if an employer group had its way.
The Australian Industry Group, which represents 60,000 businesses employing a million workers, has asked the Fair Work Commission for permission to take away entitlements in exchange for allowing WFH privileges.
The employer group had made the application to vary the clerks award, covering administration support staff.
It has confirmed it has been participating in confidential discussions with the workplace umpire.
'It would be highly inappropriate for any party to comment on or otherwise disclose the content of discussions or developments that have occurred in the context of those proceedings,' a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Austrtalia.
'To do so would be a clear and deliberate breach of faith.'
AI Group chief executive Innes Willox argued he supported work from home, after former Liberal leader Peter Dutton lost the election with an aborted plan to force Canberra-based public servants back into the office.
'The last election demonstrated the importance people place on working from home, and we know that accommodating this, when they can, is also important to many employers,' he said.
'Sadly, some in the union movement seem determined to cling to the notoriously complex web of outdated workplace laws instead of constructively and cooperatively exploring how regulation of working arrangements can be genuinely modernised in a way that is both fair and flexible for all parties.'
A little more than a third or 36 per cent of Australians are now working from home with Covid lockdowns normalising the practice.
