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
Kennet can get fucked. He fucked this State over, and his ideas are awful.
He closed so many schools in my area, and now with a booming population the existing schools are massively over enrolled and struggling. Fuck you Jeff.
Remote workers are already cheaper for their employers. A workforce of several hundred employees where 90% of them are remote can happily exist using a fraction of the commercial office space that a fully onsite workforce would need.
If remote work is such a win-win for most organisations as well as employees, why is there such a movement to penalise and discourage the concept?
Because there are bigger sharks with real estate interests…with the twin remora of middle management requiring justification and Worker Control riding upon its sides.
He also proposed to a girls school that they have an extra child for the country, didn’t he? Wake up, Jeff.
Teachers and nurses are underpaid and should be paid more because of how important their jobs are to society. Bringing wages down for everyone else is beyond fucking stupid when the same argument can be made about just lifting wages for teachers and nurses.
Teachers and nurses also arguably benefit from wfh. Fewer cars on the road = fewer accidents for nurses to deal with. Parents having better work life balance = more capacity to help their kids learn so teachers are less burdened.
How is anyone still paying Jeff Kennett any attention at this point?
Maybe we should just pay teachers and nurses more?
Cunt
A better way is to change travel time from private time to company time with a cap so people don’t abuse it.
E.g. Sydney maximum cap 2 hours each way, Canberra would be like 45 mins. To reduce discrimination for employers to discriminate by choosing closer people, every employer pays the maximum regardless of where the employee is located to the government and the government reimburses the staff, while pocketing the difference.
And how about politicians only get paid for when they are at work sitting in parliament?
And don’t get a fat cat pension for the rest of their lives.
The lack of self awareness is fucking unbelievable.
Equal pay for equal work. Why should someone working in an office building be paid more than someone working remotely, doing the same job?
Jeff Kennett desperately trying to remain relevant after dropping out of headlines for a few weeks
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.
Saying WFH jobs should take a pay cut is just incendiary phrasing. No one wants a pay cut.
One aspect not mentioned here is that, this will discourage the unnecessary “back to work” movement espoused by commercial property interests.
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.
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.
Your opinion isn’t that unpopular… and it is siloed like the OP said too. Everyone can be right. Hooray!! - case closed 😁
Right now I’m across the border in the public service at a service further from home (commute is insane) with an option closer with more money (and stress). Very privileged and siloed. But yeah, my org knew what made them competitive and today I only dressed my top half 😎
It’s a formal arrangement 2 days a week, the world turns. I’m productive at home, they got to keep their “talent”… (little do they know haha)
To/dr Capitalism wins, may as well get yours…
