Opposition's big call on union's push for four-day work week

Sky News AU

2 days ago

The opposition has dismissed calls for a four-day work week as an 'ambit claim' from unions, but says it is ultimately up to employers.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions this week announced they would push for a shorter work week at the Albanese government's Economic Reform Roundtable.
The ACTU argued working four days would boost productivity, pointing to recent research from more than 140 organisations across Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, the UK and the US.
It said that it would share productivity gains more fairly with workers and improve living standards.
Opposition industrial relations and employment spokesman Tim Wilson said on Sunday the ACTU was not serious about it.
'This is just an ambit claim from the trade union movement,' he told the ABC.
'We know it's an ambit claim because only a few months ago, the unions shut down a pathway where the retail industry, again, actually applied to introduce a pathway for a four-day working week.
'The unions were the one who shut this down.'
He said if ACTU chief Sally McManus 'really believed that this was such a good idea, she would introduce it across all the people who work for trade unions across the countries'.
Though, he added that employers were free to set arrangements as they liked with their employees.
'If work employers and employees want to come together and negotiate arrangements that suit them, that's a very different thing from what Sally McManus is proposing, where they're seeking to legislate these sorts of proposals which they aren't even adopting themselves,' Mr Wilson said.
'That's what workplace flexibility means.
'It means coming together to get the best outcome for workers and employers, to advance economic productivity and improving standards of living for every Australian.'
Anthony Albanese and his senior ministers have said the government is not working on a policy for a four-day work week.
Instead, they put the focus back on flexible work arrangements through enterprise bargaining.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth earlier said it was one of many 'different ideas' feeding into the roundtable.
'What I would say is what I hear and what the unions and businesses have often put forward, is making sure that there is flexibility around caring responsibilities, work-life balance, which is really key,' she told Sky News.
'Which is why, in the Secure Jobs Better Pay Bill that passed the parliament last term, there is the right to request flexible arrangements – that could be location, that could be hours.
'You have the right to do that if you are balancing family and care responsibilities.'
Originally published as Calls for four-day work week a ruse, opposition says