Unions in push to expand work from home entitlements
LONDON: Unions are set to push for greater work from home entitlements to provide carers with greater flexibility.
All workers would have the right to request to work from home under a peak union body’s push to provide carers of children and elderly parents with more flexibility.
Employers would only be able to refuse a request on “reasonable grounds” specific to their industry, according to the Australian Council of Trade Unions plan, as bosses fight to get people to return to the office
The proposal, contained in a submission to the Fair Work Commission’s review of modern awards, states all employees will have the right regardless of length of service or reason for the request.
“Sensible changes can be made to our awards that finally bring them into the reality of 2024,” ACTU secretary Sally McManus said.
“Most families have to juggle work and care, our system of workplace rights needs to be updated and modernised to reflect today’s workforce.”
The ACTU submission makes 26 recommendations including greater roster predictability for part-time workers and a minimum engagement of four hours for all workers.
It comes as an “alarming” new union proposal would give workplace delegates unprecedented powers to choose shifts, stop regular work at any time without punishment and get paid when doing union business outside normal hours.
The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) has sent a submission to the Fair Work Commission, which is considering what powers to give all union delegates under new industrial relations laws passed by the Albanese Government last year.
The FWC will make a decision by June 30, but the Minerals Council of Australia has warned the MEU’s demands would create a “two-tired class system” among Australian workers, giving those with delegate status major advantages.
In its submission the MEU has asked that delegates get access to a “particular shift, roster or other flexible work changes” where necessary to ensure they can act as a union representative during work time.
When a workplace delegate is representing union members or employees, the MEU wants employer to “pay the workplace delegate as it they were work,” even if they would otherwise not be working.
The union has also asked that delegates be “released from normal duties for the purpose of the workplace delegate participating in bona fide union business”.
Mineral Council of Australia chief Tania Constable said the proposed changes would give delegates the right to spend as much of their time at work engaging in union activities “as they please,” while “still being paid by the business”.
A spokesman for Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said the Government only provided the “legal framework” for the FWC to decide delegate powers.
“The Fair Work Commission will hear all the arguments and make a decision, industry by industry,” he said.
