Tens of thousands of government staff will be dragged back to the office by the Coalition if they win the federal election, two years after public servants secured unlimited WFH rights.
Opposition finance spokesperson Jane Hume said a Liberal government would make all government employees work in the office five days a week.
‘This is a commonsense policy that will instill a culture that focuses on the dignity of serving the public,’ she told an audience at the Menzies Research Centre on Monday.
‘Exceptions can and will be made inevitably, but they’re made when they work for everyone, rather than enforced on teams by the individual.
‘It doesn’t require a new department. It doesn’t require a tech billionaire. But it does require a change of government, a restoration of the disciplines that Labor has abandoned.’
Ms Hume clarified that the Coalition didn’t plan to enforce a blanket ban on WFH in a statement shared with Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.
‘Let me be very clear about Labor and the Union hyperventilating: no one is banning work from home arrangements, that is a Labor lie,’ she said.
‘Labor has made working from home a right rather than a request. Working from home has to work for everyone: the individual, the team and the department.
Opposition finance spokesperson Jane Hume (pictured) said a Liberal government would make all government employees work in the office five days a week
The Australian Public Service Commission enterprise agreement, signed in late 2023 under Anthony Albanese’s Labor government, brought in uncapped working from home days for Commonwealth employees (pictured, WFH or WFB)
‘This is a commonsense policy that reflects the arrangements for everyone else outside of the Australian Public Service.’
Ms Hume’s speech on Monday doubles down on a Coalition policy exclusively revealed by Daily Mail Australia in January, that would follow Trump’s lead by bringing the ‘WFH holiday’ for public servants to an end if elected.
In one of his first acts after taking office, the returning US President signed an executive order forcing federal employees back to the office, five days a week.
But, with executive orders not an option in Australia, if the Liberals are to succeed in ending WFH, they will need to undo a 2023 enterprise agreement that currently allows almost unrestricted WFH for Commonwealth employees.
Yet, in trying to make her case for bringing employees back to the office, Ms Hume may have made a key error in quoting inaccurate information.
During her speech, Ms Hume cited data from Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research which collated research on working from home.
‘One paper found that after work-from-home arrangements were put in place, productivity fell by about 20 per cent,’ she said.
The following morning, she doubled down on why WFH is dire for productivity while speaking to Tom Elliot on Melbourne radio 3AW.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) warns that scrapping WFH arrangements for public servants would worsen the gender pay gap (pictured, commuters in Sydney)
‘Every report, every academic study that’s coming from overseas in particular, show us that productivity is declining because people are working from home,’ she said.
Unfortunately for Ms Hume, the conclusion of the Stanford research finds that productivity is unchanged by working from home.
In fact, the study found that hybrid work had ‘zero effect’ on workers’ productivity or career advancement and dramatically boosted retention rates.
A spokesperson for Ms Hume told The Australia late on Tuesday: ‘The Senator misspoke and was talking in general terms. This is a commonsense policy that reflects the arrangements for everyone else outside of the Australian Public Service.’
But the threat of bringing public servants back to the office signal a broader issue for the Coalition and their approach to workplace rights.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) warns that scrapping WFH arrangements for public servants would worsen the gender pay gap.
Data from Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) found that, while 56 per cent of employers reduced their gender pay gap over a 12-month period, 72 per cent still pay men more, on average, than women.
As such, ending plans for WFH allowance, as well as eliminating the right to disconnect, casual workers’ rights and multi-employer bargaining, could potentially bar women from progressing in the workplace.
