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Four-day work week back on Victorian poll agenda

A four-day working week has been pushed back onto the Victorian election agenda despite both major parties rejecting the idea.

Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam today pitched a $60m fund to help a transition to a four-day working week model.

Under the two-year trial, Victorian-owned entities and departments with less than $50m in annual turnover would be eligible to apply for the funding.

Female-dominated workplaces would be prioritised and the cash used to increase staff numbers in frontline workplaces, or support systems and technology within workplaces to adapt to a new schedule.

Workplaces would transition full-time staff to four days with no loss of pay or entitlements, while part-time workers would get a proportional reduction in working hours or an equivalent pay rise.

Similar pilot programs have been launched in Canada, the United States and Ireland, with outstanding results, Ratnam said. She said:

Workers often achieve the same or greater output, and with a much more reasonable work-life balance.

The Community and Public Sector Union has written to parties to ask for their position on a four-day week for its staff and the wider sector.

Premier Daniel Andrews and opposition leader Matthew Guy last week publicly declared they did not support the proposal.

Two weeks out from early voting centres opening, new polling indicates millions of Victorians are yet to make up their minds.

A Resolve Strategic survey of 800 voters, taken from October 20 to 24 and published in the Age today, found 27% of respondents were uncommitted.

The cohort equates to a quarter of Victoria’s four million-plus enrolled voters who could be swayed in the lead-up to the November 26 poll.

 

Senator Jacqui Lambie has also been toughening her rhetoric on the IR bill. On Thursday, Lambie said it would “be hard to do our due diligence” to pass the bill this year. On Monday Lambie warned on Sky News that many elements of the bill seemed designed to help union recruitment.

Lambie said:

Unions won’t be getting it all their goddamn way, I’ve had enough of them ... Getting this through before Christmas, I doubt very, very much. Right now, it seems to be seeing all the union side of it and not about small business and big business. I’m really concerned about our small business and coming out of Covid ... they’re just starting to get back on their feet. If we don’t get this right, we’re going lose small businesses.

Lambie also expressed concern that the bill might increase strike action - although the Australian Council of Trade Unions notes that in some respects it actually makes strike action harder, such as the new requirement for conciliation and the possibility FWC will arbitrate an “intractable” dispute.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/australia-news-live-eric-abetz-says-republic-consultation-plan-is-a-con-wild-weather-leaves-14000-victorians-without-power/ar-AA13yhvl