A tribunal has found an "extremely accommodating" Queensland Health acted fairly and reasonably in its treatment of a worker's largely unsuccessful bid to expand her flexible work arrangement.
The Australian Industry Group has expressed dismay at the "skewed" drafting of a FWC survey aiming to gather information on how the clerical award currently impedes or enables working from home.
Nine in 10 women responding to a major CPSU survey say it is "very important" to be able to work from home and those who do are more likely to be satisfied with their work-life balance, while the ACTU says Coalition plans to force public servants back to the office if it wins government will hurt productivity and women's job opportunities.
Interested parties have until 4pm next Monday to comment on draft employer and employee surveys commissioned as a key component of the FWC's bid to develop an award clause removing impediments to working from home.
The FWC has overruled an employer's resistance to a working parent's request to work an extra day a fortnight at home to care for his toddler daughter until she reaches two years of age, while rejecting its claims that it would set a precedent for the remainder of its workforce.
In rare flexibility orders won by an ANMF organiser who moved 500km from the office after experiencing domestic violence, the FWC has temporarily blocked the union from requiring her to work more than three nights per fortnight away from home and directed it to count travel time as work time between certain hours for the first half of the school year.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of an aged care home manager found to have signed off on a colleague's "ludicrous" work-from-home arrangement while apparently harbouring hopes that their close relationship would deepen.
A FWC presidential member has underlined that workers are not immune from retrenchment while on leave or working under flexible arrangements, confirming that operational issues warranting severance can arise at any time.
The ACTU has told a review of the SJBP Act that employers should be compelled to accommodate flexible work requests - such as working from home - unless it causes "unjustifiable hardship", while unions should not have to demonstrate majority employee support for contested single-interest bargaining authorisations.
A leading IR barrister says few employers are equipped to deal with the "huge sleeper issue" posed by the rise of working from home, as it becomes increasingly difficult to order employees to return, but he does not believe more legislation is the answer.
