South east manufacturers have warned Victoria’s proposed work-from-home laws could create confusion, workplace tension and job risks for businesses that rely on skilled, on-site workers.
The Allan Government has introduced legislation to create a legal right to work from home through the Equal Opportunity Act 2010.
Under the proposal, eligible Victorians who can work from home would have the right to do so two days a week.
The government says the laws will save workers time and money, support families and improve workforce participation.
But the South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance, known as SEMMA, says the policy does not fit industries where workers need to build, assemble, repair, move and service products on site.
SEMMA chief executive Honi Walker said manufacturers already offer flexible work where it makes practical sense.
“Work from home should only apply where it is genuinely practical. It cannot be imposed on industries where physical presence is essential,”
Ms Walker said.
She said employers and workers should negotiate practical flexibility directly.
“Employers and employees are best placed to negotiate practical flexibility directly,”
Added Ms Walker said.
‘A Matter Between The Company And The Employee’
SEMMA president Peter Angelico said remote work should remain a commercial decision, not a political one.
“In any case, whether someone works from home or from the workplace is fundamentally a matter between the company and the employee. On what planet do governments think they need to insert themselves into that relationship?” Mr Angelico said.
Mr Angelico said businesses would adopt work-from-home arrangements where they improved productivity.
“Governments, particularly those with a socialist instinct to regulate everything, seem to believe they know better than the people who actually own, invest in and run businesses. They don’t,” he said.
“If an arrangement improves productivity, businesses will embrace it. If it doesn’t, the market will sort it out. We don’t need another Act of Parliament to tell us how to manage our own workforce.”
He said manufacturers already measure performance daily.
“As manufacturers, we live and breathe measurement. We measure productivity, quality, scrap rates, downtime, output, delivery performance and customer satisfaction every single day,” Mr Angelico said.
“If something can’t be measured, it can’t be managed. That’s a lesson every manufacturer understands instinctively, but one governments seem remarkably reluctant to apply to themselves.”
‘We Can’t Make Stuff From Home’
Ian Cubitt, a SEMMA member from a sheet metal manufacturing business, said many roles simply could not move off site.
“Obviously we can’t make stuff from home,” Mr Cubitt said.
He said even support and engineering staff often needed direct access to workers on the factory floor.
“We would prefer that they’re in the business because we need them to be talking to the people on the floor if there’s an issue with a job,” he said.
“They need to be accessible, not via phone. They need to be able to go out and have a look.”
Mr Cubitt said his business employed close to 40 people and could face pressure if staff sought fixed work-from-home days when the workshop needed them on site.
“It puts us as a business in a real precarious position where we don’t want to be,” he said.
He said businesses should choose whether to offer remote work as part of their employment conditions.
“The employers need to be the ones who can offer that. If they offer that, and if we don’t offer that, it should be our prerogative and it shouldn’t be legislation.”
Jobs And Outsourcing Concern
SEMMA says broad work-from-home rules could push manufacturers to rethink local roles.
Mr Angelico said businesses may cut jobs if the law forces them to redesign positions that need physical attendance.
“How do you make or how do you change a role if you’re forced to by law? So you either make that role redundant. So that means there’s going to be job losses,” he said.
“The immediate impact is the disruption. Long term, there’ll certainly be job losses.”
Mr Cubitt said the policy could also encourage businesses to move some remote-capable work overseas.
“You could outsource all your engineering gear and then we could pay a quarter of the costs as we currently do,” he said.
He said that could create unintended consequences for local workers.
“It’s going to have an adverse effect, I think, on a lot of businesses. An unintended effect of people being made redundant because they’re going to find better solutions than the people who they’ve got.”
Government Says Policy Supports Workers
The Victorian Government says working from home saves Victorian workers more than $5,000 a year and gives eligible workers more flexibility.
Premier Jacinta Allan said the policy would help families.
“Work from home works for families, it saves time and money and it gets more parents working,” Ms Allan said.
The Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office says employers could reject a work-from-home notice where a role requires in-person attendance, on-site equipment, customer interaction, or where remote work would cause serious productivity, safety, cost or operational issues.
But employers would need to respond to work-from-home notices and explain why the arrangement was not reasonable.
SEMMA says the government must provide clear rules that recognise the difference between office work and industries that require workers on site.
Ms Walker said a universal approach failed to recognise essential workers who could not do their jobs from a kitchen table.
“Any serious workplace policy must start with that reality,” she said.
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