The Fair Work Commission (FWC) is developing a working from home (WFH) term in the Clerks–Private Sector Award 2020 (Clerks Award). The term would facilitate employers and employees making workable arrangements for WFH, and would remove any existing award impediments to such arrangements.

Once made, the term is likely to serve as a model for incorporation in other modern awards, with or without adaptation.

It is estimated that around 41.4% of clerical and administrative workers regularly work from home in contrast to 31.5% of all employees across all occupations. The FWC believes the Clerks Award does not necessarily match the practical arrangements by which employees work at home in actuality.

WFH has been raised as an important issue relevant to balancing work and care and job security.

Some of the possibilities for this new award term include:

• providing a definition of remote work;
• providing for an expanded span of ordinary hours for employees working remotely;
• giving employees the right to work their hours in a non-continuous manner while undertaking remote work;
• giving part-time employees the right to select their own starting and finishing times when undertaking remote work, with agreement from their employer;
• allowing flexibility in relation to the taking of meal or rest breaks by employees undertaking remote work, subject to agreement with the employer;
• granting a right for employees to request WFH arrangements, coupled with a specification of when the request can be refused by the employer;
• allowing flexibility in the maximum number of ordinary hours that can be worked in a day;
• managing the authorisation and recording of overtime hours worked remotely;
• confining the WFH term to only some classifications or groups of employees covered by the Clerks Award; and
• managing the interaction of the WFH term with the right to disconnect term.