Sunrise’s Nat Barr wades into the work from home debate as shocking new statistics are released

Sunrise’s Nat Barr has waded into the vexatious work from home debate happening in Victoria, as Premier Jacinta Allan attempts to push through legislation for all employees to stay home.

Allan is trying to mandate two work from home days per week.

However, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Sally Curtain has called it “unnecessary” and “harmful” to the realities of work.

Curtain said Victorian businesses already offer flexible work from home hours for employees.

Curtain referred to a survey of more than 700 businesses published by the Chamber this week, which found three out of four workplaces already provide flexible work arrangements.

It also found 63 per cent of workplaces already had a formal work from home policy and about 77 per cent of companies require a minimum attendance in the workplace, usually three days per week.

“Legislating work from home is a waste,” Curtain explained of the policy.

“And worse, it will harm young people, deplete Victoria’s competitiveness, and unnecessarily add cost and red tape.”

In stark contrast, the Victorian government has claimed 74 per cent of employees believe work from home is important.

On Tuesday, journalist Justin Smith and CEO of Western Sydney Women Amanda Rose joined Nat Barr on Sunrise, where they were asked for their take on the survey results.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Rose said.

“You don’t legislate work from home. It’s not going to apply for all businesses. But what it is doing is taking away the flexibility of the small business owner.

“A competitive advantage of the small business is the fact that you can call up and say, ‘look, can I work on this day instead of that day?’

“My staff member just did it the other day, they said: ‘hey, can I leave early on this day rather than that day?’ You say ‘yes’ and you work with them (as their boss).”

Barr interjected: “(Do you agree to it) all the time?”

Rose went on to say “yes” if the employee needs flexibility.

“When you legislate it. You take flexibility out of an organisation, and we are in big trouble.

“The government needs to stay out of small businesses, and business as much as possible.”

Barr turned her attention to Smith, who lives in Melbourne, Victoria’s capital.

Barr asked: “How is this going down? The government wanting to legislate certain days that are work from home?’

Smith explained it was “brilliant politics” for the Premier.

“We saw what happened with Peter Dutton,” Smith said.

“Jacinta Allan is pushing Brad Battin into speaking out against it and we have an election coming up next year.

“The politics on it, there’s no denying it, it’s brilliant.”

He went on to say we can all find some “middle ground” on the issue.

“What we’re trying to achieve people is that people feel they have some rights in this area. But businesses don’t want to feel as though they are trapped into something that is not going to work for their business or is possibly going to destroy them.

“So, you know it’s one of those ones where you think ‘surely we can all get on this and come up with something that works properly.’”