Professional Staff - Flexible Work

Claim

14. Enforceable access to flexible working arrangements (including and beyond the NES provisions), including Remote Working (Working from Home) with rights to make collective arrangements for Professional Staff.

Claim Detail

• The University recognises that flexible work, including working from an alternative workplace, is a standard feature of contemporary employment and is committed to providing equitable and consistent access to flexible working arrangements across all organisational units. 

• Access to one form of flexible work arrangement (for example a 9 day fortnight) does not restrict access to other flexible work arrangements (for example VBT accrual or working from an alternative workplace). UQ Management will endeavor to ensure workers can access one or more types of flexible work. An employee’s existing flexible working arrangement must not be relied upon as reasonable ground to refuse a further or alternative request for flexible work.  

• All Professional Staff may request to work from home or another approved location on a regular or ad hoc basis. Requests will be approved unless there are reasonable business grounds for refusal. 

• Reasonable business grounds must be evidence-based and may include demonstrable negative impacts on service delivery, role duties that cannot be performed remotely, or significant impacts on team functioning. 

• If a decision is made to refuse or vary a work from home arrangement, a written evidence-based response outlining the reasonable business grounds on which the request was denied must be provided within 14 days. 

• Any decision made under this clause will be subject to review by a joint review panel.   

• Working from an alternative workplace arrangements up to 100% of the employees’ hours of work may be approved. 

• Where a working from an alternative workplace arrangement is approved, the University will take reasonable steps to support the arrangement, including providing appropriate IT equipment and system access and ensuring the staff member has access to safe systems of work, including guidance on work health and safety requirements for remote work. 

• Flexible work arrangements may be reviewed by the staff member and manager every 12 months to ensure they continue to meet operational and individual needs. Any variation will be based on reasonable grounds. 

• Where a manager seeks to change the agreed flexible work arrangement, they must provide written reasons.  An employee can only be required to change or cease their flexible work arrangement if there are reasonable business grounds to do so. These must be evidence-based and include demonstrable impacts on service delivery, role duties that cannot be performed remotely, or significant impacts on team functioning 

• Workers with flexible work arrangements will be notified in writing with 14 days' notice of any event that genuinely requires a worker to adjust their work from home schedule and work on campus. 

• Employees working compressed hours will have their RDO moved to another day if a public holiday falls on their RDO. 

Presented on 7/5/26

Management Response

• The bargaining team presented this claim to management on 7/5/26. Management did not respond during this meeting, except to object to staff on compressed hours (9 day fortnight, 19 day month etc) being compensated when a public holiday occurs on a non working day and to complain the the existing HR system could not cope with any changes to the flexible working arrnagements.