Australia should trial a four-day work week at full pay and more than double paid parental leave (PPL) to 52 weeks, according to recommendations backed by Labor and Greens senators.
The Senate work and care committee reported on Thursday, calling for a suite of policies that would radically adjust work-life balance, to make more time for caring responsibilities and boost quality of life.
The committee, chaired by Greens senator Barbara Pocock, backed many of the Greens’ industrial relations policies, including a right to disconnect from work by not answering phone calls or emails outside work hours.
The unanimous report received support from the Labor and Coalition senators, although its recommendations go much further than official government policy and both major parties warned of the cost implications of its measures.
The Albanese government has committed to increase PPL to 26 weeks by 2026 and wants to pay superannuation on PPL, another key recommendation of the report.
The committee proposed the Fair Work Commission should review the operation of the 38-hour work week, including whether to introduce “stronger penalties” for longer hours, or work, health and safety rules to prevent workload becoming a health hazard.
The committee called on the federal government to launch a four-day week trial, with employers in diverse sectors and locations to offer employees their full salary for 80% of their ordinary hours, while maintaining their full productivity and output.
The chief executive of Momentum Mental Health, Debbie Bailey, said that her community services and mental health organisation has participated for six months in a global trial of a four-day work week and in January extended it for another six.
“We entered it as a productivity exercise and the outcomes of the trial have been to improve work-life balance and happiness and reduce stress and use of sick leave.
“Capacity within the organisation has also increased, with increased hours of service delivery.”
Bailey said “you have to rethink your work day” to achieve greater output with fewer office hours.
In the Momentum office “we have a rule, if you get invited to a meeting without a purpose, agenda and intended outcome – you don’t have to go”, she said.
“Think of the meetings that go for one hour instead of 30 minutes … Whatever amount of time you have [for a meeting] you’ll fill it. So put down 30 minutes and let people get back to their work.”
The Momentum office also encourages staff to undertake “deep dives” at the time best suited to their chronotype – whether they are a morning or afternoon person – and “that’s when you get the most productive work done”.
Workers commit to “turn everything else off”, including the phone and email, a 50-minute investment that can be worth two to three hours of ordinary work time, she said.
The majority report also called for an increase in pay for workers in childcare, disability and aged care.
It called for equal pay for equal work in the gig economy, including rights to predictability of work, livable income, decent health and safety standards and paid sick and holiday leave.
Labor has committed to provide same job, same pay in labour hire and to allow the Fair Work Commission to provide minimum conditions to employment-like work in the gig economy, measures to be legislated in the later half of 2023.
In a statement Pocock said Australia is “mired in a work and care crisis which demands bold reform to fix an economic, gender equity and workforce catastrophe”.
“The committee’s report gives the government the blueprint it needs to revolutionise our workplace laws so Australians, and particularly women, can find a balance between working and caring responsibilities,” she said.
“Australia is an international outlier in terms of our support for workers with caring responsibilities. We have slipped too far behind. And we are paying a price in labour supply, stressed workers, and gender inequality.
“It is time for a new social contract, fit for the 21st-century workplace, that does not put the burden on workers juggling care responsibilities around their jobs.”
The Labor government senators said they supported the recommendations “in principle” but argued that the “trillion dollars of debt from the former Coalition government … necessarily imposes constraints on social policy”.
In their additional comments, the Coalition senators warned many of the recommended measures would have a “significant impact on the budget” and could reduce the “flexibility” in the employment relationship.
