{"id":514658,"date":"2026-03-02T22:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T22:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/514658\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T22:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T22:08:09","slug":"jacinta-allan-says-planned-work-from-home-law-would-affect-all-victorian-businesses-victorian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/514658\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacinta Allan says planned work-from-home law would affect all Victorian businesses | Victorian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

All employers will be affected by the Victorian government\u2019s plan to legislate a right to work from home two days week, with Jacinta Allan<\/a> to confirm there will be no exemptions for small businesses.<\/p>\n

It comes as cabinet met on Monday to greenlight the plan \u2013 a key pillar of Labor\u2019s re-election campaign \u2013 with further announcements expected during the parliamentary sitting week.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the premier planned to confirm that all businesses \u2013 regardless of size \u2013 would be covered by the laws once passed.<\/p>\n

It marks a shift from comments Allan made last year indicating the government would consider an exemption for small businesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Allan said the government had consulted extensively with businesses and decided that applying the policy to all employers was a matter of \u201cfairness\u201d. She said while many large companies and organisations already offer flexibility, such arrangements were less common in small businesses, which employ about 1.3m Victorians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can work from home for a small business, you deserve the same rights as someone working for a big bank,\u201d Allan said.<\/p>\n

Last year, the premier announced<\/a> that her government would legislate the right to work from home two days a week for those who can \u201creasonably\u201d do so.<\/p>\n

She said the legal right would apply to both public and private-sector workers. But it remains unclear how it would be enforced, given Victoria, like other states, handed its industrial relations powers to the commonwealth years ago.<\/p>\n

It was a move designed to wedge the state opposition after the issue became a flash point in the 2025 federal election campaign, in which Peter Dutton backed down on a policy<\/a> to restrict work-from-home arrangements for public servants due to backlash.<\/p>\n

Business groups roundly criticised the Victorian plan<\/a>, arguing work-from-home arrangements were best reached by employers and employees. This included the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, who at the time<\/a> said the policy was \u201cyet another example of the Victorian government steamrolling small business without proper consultation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmall businesses are the backbone of Victoria\u2019s economy, employing millions of Victorians, yet once again we\u2019ve been completely sidelined in the development of workplace policy that will fundamentally impact how we operate,\u201d the chair, Matthew Addison, said.<\/p>\n

The group had urged the government to considered exemptions for businesses with fewer than 50 full-time employees due to potential adverse effects.<\/p>\n

Allan\u2019s statement said work from home had increased workforce participation, saved families money and cut congestion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt saves time and money and gets more parents working,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everyone can work from home but everyone can benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opposition leader, Jess Wilson, refused to provide a position on the policy at a business event last week but said the Liberal party had a \u201clongstanding history\u201d of \u201csupporting flexible working\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI completely understand that working from home is here to stay. So if the premier wants to put forward a proposal, we will look at that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut right now it\u2019s on the premier to bring that forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All employers will be affected by the Victorian government\u2019s plan to legislate a right to work from home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-514658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}