‘It’s not a right to have flexible work arrangements’: The FWC discussion continues

Recently, the Fair Work Commission upheld an employer’s decision to reject an employee’s work-from-home request. Others appear to be in support of this outcome.

As previously discussed, FWC commissioner Christopher Platt upheld an employer’s decision to refuse an employee’s application to work exclusively from home, citing business grounds.

This may prove divisive as some are in favour of the decision and some are not. Paul Edginton, principal partner at Structured Innovation, believes some roles can’t function correctly in a hybrid or remote work setting.

“I think that really good employers and employees who communicate well negotiate hybrid arrangements that work for teams, employers and employees. Not all jobs can be hybrid or remote - and so it’s not a ‘right’ to have flexible work arrangements even if it is good practice,” said Mr Edginton.

“It is almost impossible to build culture and quality communication with a remote workforce – even hybrid can cause compromises – but this is the new normal.”

Despite Mr Edginton seeing the benefits of on-site work, the opportunities that flexible working poses can’t be ignored.

“Hybrid working creates amazing opportunities for employers to demonstrate equity and equality in the workplace for workers for whom travel and offices are a challenge. For employers to truly say they value diversity and inclusion hybrid work is an opportunity to demonstrate just how diverse and inclusive they are,” he commented.

“The challenge for leaders to meet is how to build culture and capacity in new ways. Leaders need to ramp up their people skills, their communication skills and certainly design workflows, work plans and business processes to optimise results in a whole new way.”

Mr Edginton continued: “The leaders that can do that will thrive - the leaders that long for days gone by will be consigned to history. Poor employees demand unreasonable flexibility and poor employers don't manage it well.”

This decision comes at a tricky time, as employees are becoming increasingly desperate to hang onto flexible working arrangements. According to Flare, forcing staff back into the office could compound stress, which in the current economic climate, is running rampant.

Employers have a fine line to tread. While mandating full-time on-site work could assist in promoting collaboration, morale and wellbeing may be hindered in the process.

Amendments to the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022 covered an organisation’s right to refuse work from home requests with ‘reasonable business grounds’ cited as a reason to do so.

The amendment notes that reasonable reasons are:

• That the new working arrangements requested would be too costly for the employer
• That there is no capacity to change the working arrangements of other employees to accommodate the new working arrangements requested
• That it would be impractical to change the working arrangements of other employees, or recruit new employees, to accommodate the new working arrangements requested
• That the new working arrangements requested would be likely to result in a significant loss in efficiency or productivity
• That the new working arrangements requested would be likely to have a significant negative impact on customer service

Clearly, the topic is generating some heat from both sides of the spectrum. Hybrid working may prove to be an effective middle ground to keep both happy and could shape the future workforce.