28/09/2025 – Geelong Manufacturing Council made the following submission to the Victorian Government in response to the Victorian Government’s plan to introduce working from home legislation.
Overview
GMC canvassed members for their responses to the Victorian Government’s proposal to introduce
Working from Home (WFH) legislation which would extend current Fair Work Australia laws.
We urge you to consider our views, as your Government has promised, before taking this action.
We believe a heavy-handed law of this nature could irreparably harm Victoria and all its hardworking businesses. Rather than enshrining worker’s rights, it will destroy jobs and opportunities for
our next generation of workers.
For manufacturers in Victoria, a WFH law will further undermine the attractiveness of manufacturing
roles and entrench a “haves” and “have-nots” workplace cultural divide, where frontline workers
appear less and less privileged.
We commend the following feedback to you for consideration:
1. Many employers already see Victoria as an unattractive place to invest. High and increasing
taxes (with growing debt locking in further upward pressure on taxes) and ever-increasing
regulation are not a recipe for private sector investment and growth.
2. Quite apart from the questions about whether Victoria legislating a right to Work from
Home (WFH) is constitutionally valid, decisions about day-to-day workplace matters are best
decided at a workplace level through discussion between employer and employees.
3. Most employers (including a majority of GMC members) recognise that the current labour
market demands flexible work arrangements, including a degree of WFH. Most employers
(including a majority of GMC members) welcome this flexibility and happily agree to a
degree of WFH.
4. Many of our members dispute what appears to be an exaggerated claim made in the
Premier’s press statement that “Day after day, unions are being contacted by workers who
have been denied reasonable requests to work from home.” Indeed, members responding
to our survey report they have never said no to someone who can work effectively from
home for part of the working week.
5. One of the many reasons why legislating a right to WFH is a bad idea is that it assumes that
the Victorian labour market is not dynamic – that employees aren’t free to work somewhere
else if they do not like their employment conditions and, perhaps even more fundamentally,
that employers aren’t free to relocate jobs elsewhere if they no longer think employing
people in Victoria makes sense for their business.
6. Mandating a right to WFH for Victorian employees is likely to lead employers to reconsider
any plan to increase office-based employment in Victoria and/or look at relocating such
roles to other locations (including off-shore).
7. If someone can WFH in Victoria, it is likely that role can be performed (maybe at
meaningfully lower cost) in another jurisdiction (whether Brisbane or Bangalore).
8. If Victoria legislates a right to WFH, there will inevitably be lots of arguments about which
roles should be eligible for this right. This will increase uncertainty and costs for employers,
and make Victoria an even less attractive place to invest.
9. Victoria’s productivity performance is already poor. There is no evidence to support the idea
that legislating a right to WFH will improve Victoria’s productivity or employment.
The proposed WFH law assumes workers and businesses are not free to work or
relocate jobs somewhere else – whether it is Brisbane or even Bangalore.
10. Private sector employers are encouraging people back to work because:
- Effective organisations work like teams, where individual players are not given
special rights or privileges unless they have earned these, and unless the team will
benefit. - Working at work sets up boundaries. Our members report that WFH often
encourages employees to work through illness and sometimes when on holiday
which a) Reduces business resilience as there is not the same rigour around cross
training other team members to cover in times of absence; and b) Opens the way for
future mental health work cover claims as people feel pressured to work when they
are at home when they should be taking sick leave.
11. Current Fair Work Australia laws already effectively enshrine comprehensive entitlements
for flexible working arrangements and rights for employees and employers. Adding
unnecessary additional complexity will require businesses, often operating across multiple
jurisdictions and countries, to commit further resources to manage confusion, doubt and
disputes, co-ordinate schedules, team meetings, provide OHS-approved safe places of work,
ensure effective collaboration and creativity, manage consistent culture, and provide
adequate “tools of the trade” in multiple locations.
12. The creation of a “haves” and “have-nots” division of workers is patently unfair; it is
counterproductive; and it is divisive. Police, nurses, teachers, factory workers, farm workers,
all have no choice but to be physically at work. This is particularly relevant for our members.
It is critical to the viability and attractiveness of manufacturing – and of Victoria itself – that you do
not go ahead with this proposed legislation.
About the Geelong Manufacturing Council
GMC is the leading industry body for manufacturing in Geelong and the south-west region of
Victoria. The organisation represents innovative manufacturers, large and small, and suppliers to the
sector, who collectively employ more than 150,000 people nationally and internationally.
Through knowledge sharing, advocacy and networking activities. GMC supports members in skills
and opportunities development, and in helping to stimulate innovation, product and market
diversification, and a positive manufacturing environment. We partner with regional educational
institutions in support of workforce skills and training, and with the Victorian and Australian
Governments to attract and retain more women in manufacturing roles.
Jennifer Conley, CEO Geelong Manufacturing Council