Shadow Finance Minister, Jane Hume's pledge to end work-from-home arrangements in the public sector is another sign that the Coalition is blindly following US President Trump's lead on workplace priorities.
Alongside job cuts, on his first day in office US President Trump ordered an end to remote work for all federal public servants. In a speech in Sydney last night, Senator Hume said the Coalition would bring all Commonwealth public sector workers back to the office 5-days-a-week, if the Coalition is elected.
Australian Unions say the work-from-home roll-back in the public sector shows how out of touch the Coalition is with the way modern families and women, in particular navigate their working lives.
Quotes attributable to ACTU President, Michele O'Neil:
"Jane Hume, Peter Dutton and their big business backers can't wait to start rolling back the clock on workers' rights and it wouldn't end with simply banning work from home in the public sector.
"Gina Rinehart said: 'Be like Donald Trump'… 'cut out the duplicated federal departments' is just one of her ideas.
"But ending work-from-home arrangements in this Trump copy-cat plan is really an attack on flexible work arrangements and it will hurt working women the most.
"Flexibility around where you work is helping 36 per cent of Australians balance busy lives and earn more money.
"If this enables a woman working in Services Australia in Goulburn, Townsville, Nowra or Perth to work full time and provide for her family, then the Coalition should support that instead of mindlessly following whatever Trump is doing."
Quotes attributable to CPSU National Secretary, Melissa Donnelly:
"This is just the latest attack from Peter Dutton and the Coalition on the public sector.
"The CPSU negotiated new industry leading rights for public sector workers, including work-from-home rights in the last round of bargaining.
"These arrangements work well; and research has shown that working from home increases productivity. It also supports people to work more hours, earn more money, and balance things like caring responsibilities for little kids and ageing parents.
"The last thing workers need in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis is Peter Dutton coming in and swinging an axe to their working rights and conditions. He should be supporting women to stay in the workforce not making it harder."
