Statement attributed to Business Council Chief Executive Bran Black:
The Victorian Government’s introduction of mandatory work from home legislation today is a solution searching for a problem that’s not there.
The BCA supports flexible work, with employers and employees making the decision together on what works best, not a top-down government-imposed mandate.
Flexible work is already common across Australian workplaces, many employees already have existing rights to request it, and there’s no evidence existing laws aren’t working.
The simple fact is there are many workplaces and industries that cannot offer work from home arrangements and this measure will just deepen divisions between Victorian businesses and workers.
This approach has real world consequences and this one-size-fits-all mandate will drive investment and jobs away from the state at a time they’re needed most.
This legislation does not stop at Victoria’s borders. When Victorian employees are entitled to different arrangements than their interstate colleagues, employers across the country face pressure to extend those arrangements nationally, adding to an already growing regulatory burden.
Victoria is already the most challenging place to do business in Australia according to the Business Council’s annual Regulation Rumble report, and with persistently high unemployment, businesses are already looking elsewhere. This legislation gives them another reason to do so.
The legislation also proposes referring disputes through the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission or VCAT, which is already under enormous strain and not equipped to handle hundreds of additional workplace disputes.