00:00So the current state of play is that employees who have completed 12 months continuous service
00:07and who fit into a number of protected categories, including, for instance, being a parent, are
00:14able to request flexible working arrangements, including working from home.
00:19And that request then needs to be considered by their employer.
00:22And the employer is able to refuse the request on reasonable business grounds.
00:27And those sorts of reasonable business grounds can include, for example, if it's not workable
00:32from an operational perspective, if it would have a material impact on customer service,
00:39or if there are any other health and safety considerations and the like.
00:43And so that's the same with workers across industries and occupations.
00:48That's the current state of play in terms of working from home and flexible work more broadly.
00:53I don't see that it will be enshrining in awards a guaranteed right to work from home.
00:58The Fair Work Commission has recognised that there are some impediments currently within
01:02the modern awards and specifically the clerical award that make it more difficult in terms
01:07of the requirements around spread of hours, breaks and the like.
01:13And so where I see this going is that there'll be a clause that will enable there to be some
01:18flexibility with those specific award terms to enable the employee to request.
01:23But I imagine there'll still be a balancing and a requirement of the consideration of
01:27the broader circumstances as to whether that request is granted.
01:31And it won't ever be a one size fits all approach.
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