By Victor Song, Senior Associate, Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors

On 30 July 2025, Australian Business Industrial (ABI), together with Business NSW (BNSW), filed a proposal with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to amend the Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020 (Award).

The proposed changes aim to better accommodate modern work-from-home (WFH) arrangements in lieu of some entitlements including (but not limited to) minimum engagements and continuous hours, expanding the spread of hours and removing certain allowances (e.g., clothing, first aid and overtime meal allowances).

With flexible and remote work now part of most office settings, ABI and BNSW claim that a number of Award provisions no longer align with the way employers (and employees) are operating in modern workplaces.  

ABI and BNSW’s submission aims to close this gap and ensure that businesses are not caught out by technical breaches when simply attempting to support modern working arrangements.

The proposals filed by ABI and BNSW focus on five key areas, and have to date received significant media attention, featuring on the front page of the Australian Financial Review and discussed through various live interviews on television and radio.

Proposal 1: Minimum engagements and continuous hours

The first proposal seeks to relax the rules on minimum engagement periods and continuous hours for employees working from home. 

At present, part-time and casual employees must be engaged for a minimum of three (3) hours per shift and are generally expected to work those hours continuously.  In practice, many employees who WFH prefer to spread their hours across the day, often balancing work with caring and/or household responsibilities.

The proposed change would ensure this flexibility is possible (and practical) without employers risking unintended non-compliance.

Proposal 2: Changes to working hours

The second area of reform relates to part-time work arrangements. 

Currently, any change to a part-time employee’s rostered hours requires a written agreement to vary their set working hours. It is in this context, ABI and BNSW have proposed that employers and employees should be able to agree on a broader range of hours within which work can be performed, without repeated paperwork.

This proposal is directed at ensuring employees can have the flexibility to adjust their working day as needed to accommodate personal and carer commitments, without requiring separate written agreements each time an employee elects to vary their home work hours.

Proposal 3: Change to spread of ordinary hours

The third proposal relates to changing the employee’s spread of ordinary hours.

Under the Award, employees are generally required to work their ordinary hours between 7am and 7pm on weekdays.  ABI and BNSW have instead proposed that this spread should be extended to 6am to 10pm, but only in circumstances where the employee requests it.  

This change would allow employees to “pause” work during the day to, for example, attend school pick-ups and/or caring duties, and make up their time later in the evening, supporting a better work-life balance.

Proposal 4: Breaks

At present, the Award prescribes rigid rules around when breaks must be taken. 

ABI and BNSW have proposed that these rules are unnecessarily inflexible in a WFH setting. Instead, they have proposed that employees working from home be permitted to take breaks at times which better suit their day, complementing the other flexibilities such as the removal of the obligation to work hours continuously and the ability to work ordinary hours at later points in the day.

Proposal 5: Allowances

Finally, ABI and BNSW have called for the removal of certain allowances that no longer apply in the context of remote work. These include allowances for uniforms, first aid duties and overtime meals.  ABI and BNSW have proposed that such allowances are not designed for a remote/WFH setting and were traditionally used to compensate employees for the cost of purchasing a meal away from home and/or laundering costs.

Next steps

The coming weeks will be significant in the progression of the proceedings.  

The ACTU and ASU have each filed a proposal.  

In general terms, the ASU and ACTU both support the inclusion of a legally enforceable right to request working from home, with a presumption in favour of approval and same conditions to on-site workers, arguing this would help prevent discrimination - particularly against women.  They warn that without appropriate protections, remote work could contribute to a two-tier wage system and entrench long-term disadvantage and undermine the modern awards objective.

ABI and BNSW oppose these proposals.

ABI will keep members updated as the case develops and will continue to advocate for reforms that deliver both flexibility and certainty for employers.