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Could there be an imminent workplace battleground for stay-at-home workers?

Peter Switzer
23 October 2021

As legendary apartment builder Harry Triguboff plans to breathe life into Australia’s ghost town CBDs to turn the work-from-home trend into an opportunity, a related workplace battle is looming with sackings and pay cuts likely as employers ‘get real’ about their bottom lines.

But that won’t be the reality for all bosses, with some actually believing their operations can work with remote-based employees, as they look forward to smaller offices and lower rents.

What’s becoming clear is that there will be numerous employer responses to the Coronavirus-created escalation of employees wanting to work from home, with Google proposing pay cuts for those who want to ditch the commute and life in the office!

Reuters recently reported that “Google employees based in the same office before the pandemic could see different changes in pay if they switch to working from home permanently, with long commuters hit harder”.

Fellow tech companies Facebook and Twitter are cutting pay based on the location of their stay-at-home employees. If they’re in a less expensive setting, their pay could be reduced accordingly.

In fact, Alphabet (which owns Google) has developed a calculator so their employees can see the effects of a move! “Our compensation packages have always been determined by location, and we always pay at the top of the local market based on where an employee works from,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters.

One Google employee said they copped a 10% pay cut by choosing to work from home while living in a nearby country to the Seattle office. And there’s no reason why this practice won’t come to Australia.

I know of employers who have already ‘ordered’ their staff back to work, now that masks are not needed in Sydney offices. “What employees have forgotten is that they have signed contracts that did not cover working from home,” said one employer. “If my staff want to change the working relationship, I have to work out how it will affect my business and then I might want to change the contract or change the worker!”

Another employer asked the question: “If I get used to my team working remote and I make my business work with employees in different locations, why wouldn’t I investigate hiring people in different countries, on lower wages and with no threat from unions and Fair Work?”

Employers have serious obligations if they have staff based at home. The nsw.gov.au website outlined what a boss has to cover off on if their employees are working from home. Here are the main points:

  • Provide guidance on what is a safe home office environment, including what a good work station set-up looks like;
  • Require you familiarise yourself and comply with good ergonomic practices, for example, by providing a self-assessment checklist;
  • Maintain daily communication with you and your co-workers;
  • Provide continued access to an employee assistance program (EAP) and;
  • Appoint a contact person in the business that you and your co-workers can talk to about any concerns.

It’s also made clear that: “Your employer must consult with you, other workers at your workplace, and elected Health and Safety Representatives (HSR) on working from home arrangements.”

I bet hundreds of thousands of employers haven’t got that regulation right! However, if working from home is to become an entrenched and even growing trend, there will be new costs for businesses, which means it won’t be just the cost-saving of lower rents and other in-office-related cost reductions that come from a smaller team in the workplace.

Employers will have to look at insurance implications, knowing that most accidents occur in the home! Another question is what expenses will have to be rebated to remote-based employees? Will a proportion of telecommunications outlays have to be rebated to the home-based employee?

And how will the costs of an employee travelling to a client be managed if the staff member has a long way to travel?

There’ll be a long list of costly implications that currently can’t be seen by both employers and employees until it becomes a reality.

So let’s return to the central issue that most employers and many employees want to know the answer to. And that question is: Can my boss make me return to the workplace?

The employment website seek.com.au has tackled this thorny issue, and here are the main takeouts:

Can my employer make me return to the workplace? 

• Employers are required to provide a safe working environment for their employees.

• An employer can direct an employee to return to the workplace, but that direction must be lawful and reasonable.

• What is “reasonable"? For example, if COVID-19 restrictions were partially lifted and employees could return to the workplace, it might be reasonable for an employer to direct its employees to return to the workplace over staggered days, with only half the employees onsite at any time.

• Legal advice says that failing to follow a lawful and reasonable direction could place your employment at risk.

Using these criteria, in NSW it’s now lawful not to wear masks in offices and it would be reasonable for an employer to ask all fully vaccinated staff members to return to the workplace, especially if the employer refused to allow unvaccinated employees to return.

This conclusion is based on what is “reasonable” but as we know, this word is a very subjective concept and I reckon the workplace could be in for a period of unreasonable conversations between employers and employees in 2022.

One business bound to do well will be legal practices specialising in workplace law!

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