Getting ready for Victoria's plans to enshrine WFH rights for all workers

From 1 July 2027 workers in Victoria will have a right to work from home (WFH) two days per week, according to the Victorian Government which has advanced plans first announced in August 2025.

Following the announcement last year, the Victorian Government undertook an online survey of Victorian employers and employees, which revealed "[m]ore than 3,200 didn’t feel they could ask their current employer to work from home".

In the first major design update to the proposed legislation, the government has now confirmed that there will be no exception for small businesses in respect of employees' right to WFH, which had previously been flagged as a possibility. The government has cited a need to ensure that employees working for small businesses have the same rights as those working in large corporate enterprises.

The policy proposal is aimed at improving workforce participation for carers, people with a disability and people with families, as well as productivity in employment. The imposition of additional regulatory burdens on employers has, however, drawn some criticism, particularly for smaller businesses that lack dedicated human resources teams to manage compliance.

Key features of the proposed WFH Right

While the draft legislation won't be introduced to Victorian Parliament until July 2026, the Government has sketched out some of its key features:

• Employees who can "reasonably" perform their role from home will have the right to do so for at least two days per week.

• Roles that cannot reasonably be performed remotely, such as those in construction, nursing, or manufacturing, will not be covered.

• No exemption will apply on the basis of employer size, meaning businesses of any headcount will be covered.

The precise method for assessing whether an employee "can reasonably do their job from home" remains unclear. We expect that whether it is "reasonable" for an employee to WFH will take the form of a balancing exercise, involving an assessment of relevant factors like the employees' personal circumstances, the requirements of the employee's role, the operational needs of the employers, and any health and safety risks. This is the approach for assessing whether it is reasonable to refuse flexible working arrangements on reasonable business grounds in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

It's also not yet known whether casual employees will be eligible or whether the WFH right will be a day one right for employees.

Legislative Mechanism

One key question is the power that the Victorian Government will use to create this legal right, as Victoria has referred most of its industrial relations powers to the Commonwealth. The Government has now confirmed that the WFH right will be enshrined in the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic), which regulates discrimination in employment by employers and their employees who work in Victoria.

Disputes over the WFH right will go to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission for conciliation, utilising the dispute resolution service established under the Act. Where parties can't resolve a dispute through conciliation, they can make an application to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to hear and decide the case.

If the bill is passed into law, the Victorian Government intends to bring the law into effect from 1 September 2026. The law will not commence actual operation until 1 July 2027, to provide business with time to prepare for the new requirement.