Casual employment has resumed a long-term decline, while the incidence of working from home has stabilised at just over a third of the workforce, according to newly-released ABS data.
Victoria's Allan Government is supporting a Silver Review recommendation that public sector agencies ensure employees adhere to the expectation that they work a minimum of three days in the office, with most currently attending for only two days.
The FWC's approach to assessing flexible work disputes is potentially undermining workers' rights to plan ahead, an academic has warned, after the tribunal held that a Sydney Water employee could not make such a request in the lead-up to his 55th birthday, and found a father ineligible until he finalised his custody arrangement.
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 proportion of employees working from home in 2023 has hardly eased since the COVID-19 lockdown, with 35% of workers doing some WFH and 15% performing most of their hours away from the office, according to the latest HILDA report.
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 "labour productivity bubble" that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic can provide lessons for the future, and hybrid working can be more beneficial to productivity than wholly working from home or the workplace, according to a new Productivity Commission report.
Just 6% of clerical workers who seek WFH arrangements are knocked back by their employer, according to a new Swinburne University study commissioned by the FWC as part of the work from home test case.
The Coalition has reversed its stance on working from home in the federal public sector, while also shifting its position on slashing the APS workforce by 41,000, saying it will now be achieved over five years by natural attrition and hiring freezes, but the CPSU is warning this will still have a "devastating" effect on services.
The number of workers covered by agreements has risen by 36.5% over the past three years, according to the latest triennial FWC general manager's report, while applications to deal with bargaining disputes rose 73.5% over the same period.
