NSW public sector employees have been told they must “principally” work from the office. The NSW public sector employs 400,000 people in the state, including project officers, programmers, and administration roles.
Premier Chris Minns’ office announced the shift away from work-from-home arrangements in a statement to government workers.
It said working from home shouldn’t be “considered unlimited”.
Chris Minns
In a press conference, Minns said the change would only affect 15% of the workforce. This is because most public sector employees don’t have the option to work from home.
He argued that working from the office “is about building up a culture… teamwork, a common and shared sense of purpose.”
Union
The sector’s union, the Public Service Association (PSA), said it “has always fought for flexible working arrangements.”
This includes allowing employees to work from home if the job doesn’t “rely on them attending a specific site.”
Minns’ office said “flexible working arrangements” like job-sharing and part-time hours aren’t changing.
The PSA also raised concerns that some government offices in NSW aren’t big enough to accommodate all the public sector workers who need them.
Minns said the Government was prepared to rent more office space if this was the case. He said: “a lot of commercial operators” in the Sydney and Parramatta CBDs “are desperate for office workers to come back.”
NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman did not provide a comment at the time of publishing.
