Industry awards review could impact millions of workers
The Fair Work Commission is reviewing modern workplace awards, including those for working from home. The review into industry awards was instigated by the government's Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.
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00:00 Currently, the Fair Work Commission is accepting submissions from different groups like unions
00:08 before there's further consultation.
00:10 But this has all come about after the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony
00:15 Burke, wrote to the Fair Work Commission in September.
00:20 And he said, I'd like you to take a look at reviewing the modern workplace awards.
00:25 And so this review is quite broad.
00:28 It's looking at things like job security and also the relationship between work and care.
00:33 So people who work but also have caring responsibilities at home and perhaps how that can be more flexible
00:40 for those people.
00:42 Now one of the talking points that's arisen from all of this is working from home.
00:46 Obviously, that's something that a lot of Australians do, or perhaps a lot of Australians
00:51 would like to do as well.
00:52 And so a report published last month by the Fair Work Commission actually showed that
00:57 in 2022, more than 40% of workers reported working from home regularly.
01:05 And as part of that report as well, it also included some research that suggested it didn't
01:10 reduce productivity if people sort of took on that hybrid model of working from home
01:15 where you're a few days at home, a few days in the office as well.
01:18 And it also pointed out that that really now is the preference for most office workers.
01:23 Of course, there are a lot of jobs across the board where it's not possible for people
01:27 to work from home, perhaps things like construction or emergency workers.
01:33 And the report also does point out that there are some challenges associated with it from
01:38 a business perspective as well.
01:39 Some of that on the job mentorship can be a bit harder and also organising spontaneous
01:45 meetings as well.
01:46 So still a bit of consultation to go, but we're starting to get, I guess, a sense of
01:51 people's different perspectives on this.
01:56 Some way to go, but what has been the political reaction so far to this?
02:00 Ruby, we're starting to hear from politicians today.
02:04 So the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, he says it's different for different jobs.
02:09 And he did talk about the construction industry, that that is one of those jobs where it's
02:13 a bit not possible.
02:14 But he says that for certain jobs, it is more flexible for people as well.
02:19 But we did hear from opposition leader Peter Dutton as well, that says the government needs
02:23 to be a bit careful about this.
02:25 Take a listen to their views earlier today.
02:29 We're consulting, the Fair Work Commission are consulting on this.
02:33 I think what we need to do is to look for win-win.
02:36 We need to look where it's appropriate, where it boosts productivity, where it is helpful
02:43 in order to secure people.
02:46 If you look at women's workforce participation, it's at a record high.
02:52 And that is one of the factors.
02:54 Now you can't work from home as a nurse at this facility, because you've got to work
02:59 with patients.
03:00 So it isn't one size fits all.
03:04 And we shouldn't have a one size fits all approach to it.
03:08 What we need is flexibility, a bit of common sense, and look for measures that help workers,
03:14 but also help employers.
03:17 Flexibility is fine for workers and we encourage that.
03:21 But in the end, we have to be careful that the Albanese government just doesn't side
03:26 with the union on every occasion.
03:29 Because all that happens is if the price of wages go up too dramatically in an inflationary
03:34 environment, you'll end up with much higher prices for consumers.
03:39 Now we have heard from the Greens too.
03:42 They say it's appropriate that these discussions are being held, but say it's still a long
03:47 way off giving workers the right to work from home.
03:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]