A FWC member has revealed the untold story of what happened to the vast majority of the almost 300 disputes over flexible work requests the tribunal received in the last financial year, after only a handful went to arbitration, while she also spelt out her proven template for resolution.
The FSU says employers are now on notice that they must have genuine business grounds for refusing flexible work arrangements, after the FWC made orders to enable a Westpac employee to work from home to care for her children, finding "no question" her role can be "performed completely remotely".
The FWC has found a flexible working request invalid, because of its "tenuous" connection to the worker's caring responsibilities and the strain his absence would have imposed on other workers.
A FWC full bench has rejected an employer's challenge to a finding that it must grant an employee's flexible work request, upholding a decision that reaffirms the precedence of NES provisions even when inconsistent with the terms of an enterprise agreement.
A leading employment and IR barrister says the four-day working week, working from home and the right to disconnect are part of an unavoidable reorganisation of working hours that is set to become "the big issue of our time".
A worker failed to provide evidence that demonstrated that she sought a compressed work week to care for her partner and grandson, and that those needs related to her age, the FWC has found, ruling her flexible work arrangement request invalid.
The FWC has found the ATO failed to respect the ASU's role as the representative of a legally blind worker called into a meeting to discuss a request the union made on his behalf for a 100% WFH flexibility arrangement, to avoid the need to take public transport.
A model working from home clause in a key award should avoid contributing to remote workers working "long and unsociable hours", address employer provision of equipment and apply to all employees, according to a Centre for Future Work report.
The Greens will use their balance of power in the Senate to seek to amend the Fair Work Act to give workers the right to work at least two days a week from home if it is "practical and reasonable", echoing Victoria's recent policy proposal.
Victoria's Allan Government says it is considering using the State's equal opportunity laws to enshrine a two-day-per-week work-from-home "right" for public and private sector employees, while an IR expert suggests questions around its enforceability might be beside the point.
