Would you take a pay cut to work from home?
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett is proposing public servants who work remotely should be paid less than those that have no choice but to commute — such as nurses and teachers.
He explained his idea to Sammy J on ABC Radio Melbourne Breakfast.
EDIT - Here’s the article in the Herald Sun they’re referring to (unpaywalled): https://archive.is/20230711234402/https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/bid-to-have-employees-salaries-cut-if-they-work-from-home/news-story/6273dad7538f5485e182a6cd5e19cc92
Kennet can get fucked. He fucked this State over, and his ideas are awful.
He closed so many schools in my area, and now with a booming population the existing schools are massively over enrolled and struggling. Fuck you Jeff.
Remote workers are already cheaper for their employers. A workforce of several hundred employees where 90% of them are remote can happily exist using a fraction of the commercial office space that a fully onsite workforce would need.
If remote work is such a win-win for most organisations as well as employees, why is there such a movement to penalise and discourage the concept?
He also proposed to a girls school that they have an extra child for the country, didn’t he? Wake up, Jeff.
Teachers and nurses are underpaid and should be paid more because of how important their jobs are to society. Bringing wages down for everyone else is beyond fucking stupid when the same argument can be made about just lifting wages for teachers and nurses.
Teachers and nurses also arguably benefit from wfh. Fewer cars on the road = fewer accidents for nurses to deal with. Parents having better work life balance = more capacity to help their kids learn so teachers are less burdened.
