Australian state orders public servants to stop remote working after a newspaper campaign against it

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The government of Australia’s most populous state ordered all public employees to work from their offices by default beginning Tuesday and urged stricter limits on remote work, after news outlets provoked a fraught debate about work-from-home habits established during the pandemic.

Chris Minns, the New South Wales premier, said in a notice to agencies Monday that jobs could be made flexible by means other than remote working, such as part-time positions and role sharing, and that “building and replenishing public institutions” required “being physically present.” His remarks were welcomed by business and real estate groups in the state's largest city, Sydney, who have decried falling office occupancy rates since 2020, but denounced by unions, who pledged to challenge the initiative if it was invoked unnecessarily.

The instruction made the state’s government, Australia’s largest employer with more than 400,000 staff, the latest among a growing number of firms and institutions worldwide to attempt a reversal of remote working arrangements introduced as the coronavirus spread. But it defied an embrace of remote work by the governments of some other Australian states, said some analysts, who suggested lobbying by a major newspaper prompted the change.

“It seems that the Rupert Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph in Sydney has been trying to get the New South Wales government to mandate essentially that workers go back to the office,” said Chris F. Wright, an associate professor in the discipline of work at the University of Sydney. The newspaper cited prospective economic boons for struggling businesses.

The newspaper wrote Tuesday that the premier’s decision “ending the work from home era” followed its urging, although Minns did not name it as a factor.

But the union representing public servants said there was scant evidence for the change and warned the state government could struggle to fill positions.

“Throughout the New South Wales public sector, they’re trying to retain people,” said Stewart Little, the General Secretary of the Public Service Association. “In some critical agencies like child protection we’re looking at 20% vacancy rates, you’re talking about hundreds of jobs.”

Little added that government offices have shrunk since 2020 and agencies would be unable to physically accommodate every employee on site. Minns said the state would lease more space, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The change is a “game-changer” for languishing central city businesses, said Katie Stevenson, Executive Director of the Australian Property Council's NSW branch. “More workers mean more life, more investment, and more business for our cities."

Individual agencies could devise their own policies, the order added, but should ensure employees “spread attendance across all days of the working week.” Requests to work from home on some occasions should be formally approved for a limited period only and reasons for the request should be supplied, the directive said.

Minns said workplace culture and opportunities for mentorship would improve, in remarks echoing other business leaders worldwide who have questioned the productivity of remote workers. Most public workers, such as teachers and nurses, could not work from home anyway, he added.

The order set New South Wales apart from other Australian states, one of which sought to capitalize on the move Tuesday. A spokesperson for Jacinta Allan, the premier of neighboring Victoria, told reporters the state’s remote work allowances would remain undisturbed and disgruntled NSW public servants should consider moving there.

Wright said the change not only overturned increased flexibility during the pandemic but also erased a decade of moves by Australia’s federal government encouraging remote working to reduce barriers to workforce participation, lower carbon emissions and reduce traffic jams.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been broadly supportive of remote working. His government will enact a “right to disconnect” law later this month that will allow employees to refuse work communications outside their agreed hours.