Working-from-home caps will be scrapped for thousands of Australian public sector workers but business lobbyists in Adelaide say it would be the “death knell” for CBD retail.
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has struck a deal with the Australian Public Service Commission for more flexible working arrangements.
The deal removes caps on the number of days staff can work from home, allowing them to stay at home permanently unless there were “clear business reasons” to refuse a request.
The CPSU has more than 120,000 members and says the deal is “ground breaking” and would open doors for people who were previously unable to consider public service employment.
The union said research, both based on the experience of workers as well as their supervisors, is that people were just as productive if not more productive, working from home.
But Adelaide’s business groups have warned that any moves by South Australia’s public service to follow suit would smash the failing CBD retail sector.
“They’d be like a ghost town,” Business SA CEO Andrew Kay said.
SA’s public service employs a colossal 100,000 people with a high proportion working in the city.
Unfortunately, Adelaide’s CBD has been in decline for 40 years, hit by people leaving the state, a failing economy, outrageous commercial rents and the rise of mega-malls in the suburbs.
It was a ghost town before Covid-19 hit.