Enshrining WFH may prove jobs don’t need to be Australian-based, recruiter warns
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
“Be careful what you wish for”: The codification of work from home rights for Victorian employees may accelerate an already-present trend: offshoring of Australian jobs.
Last week, the Victorian state government introduced legislation to enshrine WFH under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010, through which employees who can work from home will have the legal right to do so two days per week.
According to the state government, more than one-third of workers (including three in five professionals) regularly WFH, with savings for families totalling over $5,300 annually. Moreover, WFH can cut congestion, with Victorians now saving more than three hours a week on average commuting, and workforce participation is now 4.4 per cent higher than before the pandemic.
The laws, once passed, will come into effect on 1 September 2026, while workplaces with fewer than 15 employees will be granted a delayed commencement date of 1 July 2027, giving them more time to get their policies and procedures in order.
Legal professionals have already flagged concerns about the looming legislation, noting it will significant increase the number of disputes being heard by an already-overburdened Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
However, for one recruiter, the flow-on consequences also extend to the presence or otherwise of white-collar roles in Australia.
In conversation with HR Leader, recruiter Sarah Donegan, who is the managing director of Samuels Donegan, said there are commercial realities that are starting to bite, which may see WFH roles be offshored.
“The unintended consequence of legislating work-from-home rights is that it may accelerate exactly the trend workers should be most worried about: the offshoring of white-collar jobs,” she warned.
“Nowhere else in the world has gone this far, and Australia risks making local roles less flexible for employers, not more secure for employees.”
“We are already seeing major businesses such as Woolworths and Officeworks move parts of their white-collar workforce to lower cost countries. This takes us one step further down that path,” Donegan continued.
“If a role can be done permanently from home, employers will inevitably ask whether it can also be done from Manila, Mumbai or Kuala Lumpur. That is the commercial reality.”
“Employees may think they are winning a right to work from home, but they may also be helping prove the job no longer needs to be in Australia at all,” she said.
“Be careful what you wish for.”
RELATED TERMS
Offshoring is the practice of hiring labour from other nations to carry out a portion of corporate activities to benefit from tax savings, lower wages, or less regulation. This happens frequently in businesses like call centres and manufacturing.
The practice of actively seeking, locating, and employing people for a certain position or career in a corporation is known as recruitment.
Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?Make HR Leader a preferred news source on Google.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the managing editor of Momentum Media’s professional services suite, encompassing Lawyers Weekly, HR Leader, Accountants Daily, and Accounting Times. He has worked as a journalist and podcast host at Momentum Media since February 2018. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
