Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Working from home expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Controversy examines how working from home was framed and regulated pre-pandemic. We contrast this with the changes made to Australia's industrial award system during the pandemic to increase flexibilities around working from home, in response to a collective need for a responsive safety net. We argue that the conception and regulation of working from home is shifting from an individual flexibility, to a ‘collective flexibility’ available to a wide array of workers, collectively negotiated and governed by increased regulation. While industrial instruments were varied to accommodate public health requirements and the need of organisations and employees to work from home, these shifts were temporary. We argue that working from home provisions should rightly be regulated as a collective entitlement. We therefore consider possible ways forward in regulating this form of working, drawing from international developments. We raise these issues to extend debates around how working from home can be regulated to benefit employers and employees as we move towards COVID-normal.
Source: Journal of Industrial Relations
Authors: Sue Williamson, Alicia Pearce
Language: English
Topic: Labor Law and Work Dynamics
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4224865990