Source : Perth Now news
A leader at retail giant Bunnings has taken aim at Victoria’s incoming work-from-home laws, warning the changes could create “structural inequity” in workplaces.
The first-of-its-kind legislation, slated to take effect from September 1, will legally enshrine the right for employees to work from home two days a week.
Despite repeated assurances from Premier Jacinta Allan that full-time, part-time and casual workers will be covered by the two-day-a-week mandate, the first draft of the Bill released this week showed apprentices, graduates and workers on probation were not covered.
Bunnings managing director Michael Schneider has now joined the chorus of business and political leaders against the legislation, saying it was building “structural inequity” into their working environment.
“We’ve got a whole lot of teams who have to go to work to perform their duties – our store teams, our distribution teams, our manufacturing teams – and they do amazing work all the time,” he told 3AW.
“But all of a sudden, we’ve got a situation where our support teams, under this proposed legislation, actually have a legal right to work from home a couple of days a week.
“Our view is as a business, we understand the needs of our business, we understand the needs of our teams – we have no problem with our support team working from home, but we think we’re really well-equipped to manage that ourselves.”
Mr Schneider said every business and its needs were different, and that business leaders were well-placed to address them.
“We offer flexible work in our stores … and it’s the same for our support centre team,” he said.
“For us, it seems to work perfectly well everywhere else in the country and I’m not sure why it needs to be different just because it’s Victoria.
“I think employers do want to offer flexibility – I haven’t spoken to a business leader that doesn’t think flexibility is a good thing – but does it need to be legislated?”
Melbourne’s Acting Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell also took aim at the laws this week, describing them as “a bureaucratic and legal nightmare”.
“Not only is this state government legislation unnecessary, it creates a bureaucratic and legal nightmare for small businesses that are already doing it so tough,” Ms Campbell said in a statement.
“This legislation will do nothing to grow the state’s economy and is a long-term threat to every Victoria worker because a job that can be done from Pakenham is a job that can be done from the Philippines.”
The government claims working from home saves each worker on average $5308 a year.
Ms Allan also says one-third of workers and 60 per cent of white collar workers regularly work from home, while the workforce participation rate is 4.4 per cent higher now than before the pandemic.
Melbourne CBD office occupancy rates exceeded 65 per cent in early 2026, the highest level since 2020, figures from major office space realtor CBRE show.
Currently being debated in parliament, the Bill is slated to be passed and come into effect from September 1.
A worker must provide their employer a “work from home notice”, and the business would be required to respond within 21 days.
A business can weigh up whether working from home decreases productivity, undermines the training of other employees or damages client and stakeholder relationships.
Casual employees also must be working on a “regular and systemic basis”, according to the draft released on Tuesday.
If the business and worker agree working from home is reasonable, the business is on the hook for all “essential” hardware and software and the cost for secure access to the business’ information systems.
Businesses with fewer than 15 employees will have until July 1 to comply.
