Key Points
- Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett says remote workers should take a pay cut.
- Remote workers save on transport and other costs, Kennett said.
- The Australian Council of Trade Unions rubbished the proposal.
Public sector workers working from home spend less than their colleagues who work in an office and, therefore, should be paid less, according to a proposal from former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett.
He said remote workers are saving "thousands" in transportation costs, and not having to face stressful commutes, and it was creating a divide in the community.
Kennett said people who have no choice to work from home could end up spending an extra $10,000 annually.
"Clearly, Victoria's financial position is such that we cannot afford to be increasing salaries, so the most appropriate method is if a person chooses to work from home, whatever the number of days a week, their salary is reduced by the reduction in costs they would have otherwise incurred," he told the Herald Sun newspaper.
Are cost of living pressures pushing people to work from home?
"There will be people making a decision [to work from home] because they don't have to go through the trauma of driving to and from work, or [taking] the train or something – they save money, and it saves them all that stress," Kennett said.
He later told ABC Radio, the rising cost of living pressures are pushing people to stay at home to work, whereas emergency service workers, nurses and teachers have to go into the workplace.
But the proposal was rubbished by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the idea was a "knee-jerk" reaction, not taking into account the financial pressure Aussies are under in this current climate.
"Whenever there's an issue affecting workers, it seems the Liberals have one answer, cut people's pay," she said in a statement.
"It wouldn't matter the problem, it's always the same solution, cut workers' pay."
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has proposed people working from home could take a pay cut. Source: AAP / Joel Carrett
Opposition finance spokesperson Jane Hume said workers need to get back into CBDs, and that hasn't happened with Victorian public servants.
"Perhaps there should be a compensation or some sort of trade-off for those that actually attend the workplace rather than home," the Victorian Liberal senator told Sky News, though she acknowledged "it's not something that's on the Coalition's agenda".
How many people are working from home in Australia?
In the last census in August 2021, some 20 per cent of Australians were working from home, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Though that was an unusual census conducted during COVID lockdowns on much of the country's east coast, the number of workers doing a 'hybrid' arrangement of working some days from home and some from an office has increased since then.
Also, on Wednesday, more than 170,000 Australian workers got confirmation to work from home without limits under a new union agreement.
The deal was signed between the Community and Public Sector Union and the Australian Public Service Commission signed the deal. It will affect union staff in federal, ACT and Northern Territory public sectors, call centres, telecommunications, employment services, commercial broadcasting, aviation and science and research.
The union said it hoped the new flexible arrangement would help with staff retention.
