An ACTU wants a charter of rights for employees working from home.

More people want to work from home but want better protections according to a survey of 10,000 Australian workers conducted by the ACTU.

The survey found that:

• 80 per cent of workers want to continue to work from home
• 40 per cent are working longer hours
• 90 per cent are not being paid overtime or penalty rates for extra hours worked
• 47 per cent said they were more productive at home.

Working from home has imposed an average $530 in additional expenses on each worker and about a third reported an increased workload.

The ACTU is proposing a working from home charter that ensures “the rights and benefits of those working at home not be less favourable than when they were prior to the move to home-based work, and that working from home not be grounds for discrimination”.

The charter of rights proposes that employers will have to commit that all workers’ time and expenses should be compensated, and workers should have the “right to disconnect” to preserve work-life balance.

ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, said the union movement “will be working to support our members … to ensure we lock in fair working from home arrangements”.

“We also need to be aware that working from home has particular impacts on women and carers, and we don’t want to see existing gender inequality entrenched through new forms of work.”

‘We also need to be aware that working from home has particular impacts on women and carers.’