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2022 UNSWLJ Forum 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/unswform2022 and id is 1 raw text is: [2022] No 1 What Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Reveal about Workplace Flexibility WHAT DID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC REVEAL ABOUT WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY FOR PEOPLE WITH FAMILY AND CARING RESPONSIBILITIES? DOMINIQUE ALLEN* AND ADRIANA ORIFICI** I INTRODUCTION Increasingly, employers are embracing the idea of flexible work. In 2019-20, 75.9% of employers reporting to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency ('WGEA') had a policy and/or strategy for flexible working.1 WGEA says that a flexible working arrangement is 'an agreement between a workplace and an employee to change the standard working arrangement to better accommodate an employee's commitments out of work ... [and it] usually encompass[es] changes to the hours, pattern and location of work'.2 In Australia, employees may request flexible working arrangements from their employers informally or, if eligible, formally via the right set out in section 65 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ('FW Act').3 One of the strongest arguments for flexible working arrangements is they lead to greater workforce participation by women. The WGEA claims that 'flexibility is a key driver and enabler of gender equality'4 and encourages employers to make their workplaces more flexible * Associate Professor, Department of Business Law & Taxation, Monash Business School, Monash University. ** Lecturer, Department of Business Law & Taxation, Monash Business School, Monash University. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors for their valuable comments. Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 'Australia's Gender Equality Scorecard: Key Results from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency's 2019-20 Reporting Data' (Scorecard, 26 November 2020) 2, 10. The highest proportion of employers with this type of policy and/or strategy were in the Financial and Insurance Services sector. The lowest were in the Agricultural, Forestry and Fishing sector: at 10. 2 'Flexible Work', Workplace Gender Equality Agency (Web Page) <https://www.wgea.gov.au/flexible-work> ('Flexible Work'). 3 An eligible employee who 'is the parent, or has responsibility for the care, of a child who is of school age or younger' may make a formal request: see Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ss 65(1), 65(1A)(a), 65(2) ('FWAct'). See also Part II below. 4 Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 'Executive Briefing on Workplace Flexibility' (Toolkit, 11 March 2019) 3 <https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/FLEXIBILITY_TOOLKIT_EXECUTIVE- BRIEFING_0.pdf>. 1