A record number of Victorians have had their say on the Allan Labor Government's work from home laws - with an unprecedented amount of people participating in the consultation to date.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Treasurer Jaclyn Symes today joined Lana Dennis - a Melbourne woman who benefits from work from home - to announce that 18,448 Victorians have already participated in consultation.
Some 122 businesses have also registered their interest in participating in online industry forums, which begin this week.
By these numbers, the Have Your say: Working From Home survey is one of the biggest online engagement processes ever run by a state government in Australia - and it broke Engage Victoria records for number of submissions and speed of submission.
More than 1,000 responses were received in the first two hours of the consultation, with 5,000 responses received by the end of the first day. The Engage Victoria platform averaged 8 to 9 submissions per minute.
The Victorian postcodes with the most participants in the engagement process to date are:
- Point Cook (3030)
- Truganina (3029)
- Roxburgh Park (3064)
- Wyndham Vale (3024)
- Sandhurst (3977)
- Clyde (3978)
- Berwick (3806)
- Mernda (3754)
- Reservoir (3073)
- Redan (3350)
With one month to go before consultation closes, the Government is encouraging all workers and employers to take part and help shape the state's new work from home laws.
The survey has now also been translated into Hindi, Punjabi, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Greek and Italian to ensure even more Victorians can have their say.
Under the proposed laws, if you can reasonably do your job from home, you will have the right to do so for at least two days a week, whether you work in the public sector or private sector.
The consultation won't determine whether working from home should be a right - we already know it should be. This is about making sure the rules are appropriate.
The Government is seeking feedback on key elements of the proposed laws including the types and sizes of businesses that will be covered, the definition of remote work, and who can reasonably work from home.
Consultation data will reveal what Victorians think about working from home - including how important the ability to work from home is for employees and whether they are more likely to choose one job over another because of working from home arrangements.
The Government is also capturing the view of business, with industry discussions to begin this week.
Have your say and help shape the future of work in Victoria by making a submission or participating in the survey by 28 September at engage.vic.gov.au/wfh.
As stated by Premier Jacinta Allan
"Victorians are leaping at the chance to have their say about work from home - and we're listening."
"Over the last few years, we've heard a lot about what big business thinks of work from home, but we haven't heard enough about what workers think. That's what this survey is all about."
As stated by Minister for Industrial Relations Jaclyn Symes
"Work from home works for families and its good for the economy."
"A record number of Victorians have had their say - that just shows how important working from home is to so many Victorians."
