Before COVID-19 sent one-third of the global workforce home, the Melbourne property surveyor employing drone operator Nicholas Coomber called its 180-strong staff into the office daily at 9 a.m. to hand out assignments. Now that they work from home, he has a more flexible schedule. Coomber is one of the millions of workers who have seen their remote working conditions change since the pandemic hit, with many companies deciding to make what started as an emergency measure their permanent modus operandi. However, while the shift has been a boon for many workers and businesses, it also creates new headaches for some employers. The Australian workforce has been reshaped unexpectedly, with unions and business leaders fighting for workers’ right to choose work-from-home (WFH) arrangements as a permanent feature of the economy.
In a country where offices are at a multi-year low for occupancy, and record petrol prices are pushing up the cost of commuting, that battle is not going well. Jenny Searle, a merchandising manager at NewsXpress, drives from her outer suburban home to the company’s central city offices for two to two-and-a-half hours a day. The shift to WFH means she will be working from home permanently.
“It is hard to go back to what it was like when you have had such a big disruption,” she says. “The genie is out of the bottle.”
The change has upended office space rentals, with the property council in Melbourne saying occupancy levels are down to less than half of their pre-pandemic levels. That is bad news for office landlords who have had to cut rental rates and re-sign tenants to stay in the market. Moreover, it is a headache for workers whose jobs require them to be at the office or in the field, including frontline staff who work in health care, law enforcement, and education.
It is a change happening globally as employers adapt to a changing world of work, but Australia is leading the fight for WFH. The country has become the poster child for the changing labor market, with unions and companies arguing for permanent telework.
When hiring people from abroad, HR teams need to make sure they are taking the time to understand any workplace entitlements that their employees will have in the country of their employment. Baker & McKenzie advises that a standard part of the recruitment process should include discussing local health and safety requirements, insurance coverage (including personal and public liability), tax requirements, and non-disclosure or confidentiality obligations with new hires. Sometimes, it is possible to arrange for an employee to be reimbursed for local medical expenses if they become ill while working remotely overseas. However, that should be negotiated with each case, with independent legal advice sought before agreeing to anything.
