Jeff Kennett's remote work pay cut proposal - ABC Melbourne
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The former premier says work-from-home arrangements are creating a social divide.

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

  • zero_gravitas@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    It’s an unpopular opinion, but I think this will happen organically over the coming decade.

    WFH jobs are more desirable, naturally on premise jobs will have to pay more to attract employees.

    For roles which can be either WFH or on-premises, yeah. But in the case of nurses and teachers it’s not like they’ll have an option, and it’s not trivial to switch into or out of those professions. So I don’t think you can say this will occur organically across the public sector as a whole. It’ll only happen within silos of similar (enough) positions.

    Saying WFH jobs should take a pay cut is just incendiary phrasing. No one wants a pay cut.

    I think Coalition governments would probably like to give public servants a pay cut. Sure, there’s not many places the Coalition is in power at the moment, but when they do come into power again I’d imagine they’d find it handy to know where public opinion falls on cutting public servants’ wages (or at least reducing increases) depending on whether they WFH. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kennett is running this up the flagpole for them.

    • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      01·
      1 year ago

      It’s not trivial to switch into or out of those professions, and yet the ability is a huge incentive to do so.

      I don’t expect these changes will happen immediately, but in 10 years time I think it’s pretty natural to assume you’ll be able to earn more if you’re willing to work in an on premise profession.