Clerks award adds WFH clause

The Fair Work Commission has moved to add a working-from-home clause to Australia’s Clerks—Private Sector Award 2020, creating a formal award-based pathway for some clerical and administrative employees to seek remote work. The decision was issued on August 27, 2026 by a Full Bench comprising Justice Hatcher, Deputy President O’Neill and Commissioner McKinnon. (fwc.gov.au) The case, AM2024/34, was started by the Commission on its own initiative on August 29, 2024 after the Modern Awards Review 2023–24 flagged the issue. A draft determination has now been published for comment before the award is formally varied. ### Which workers are actually affected? (fwc.gov.au) The Clerks Award covers employees who mainly perform clerical and administrative work in the private sector, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman’s award summary. That means the change is not a whole-of-workforce remote-work rule; it is tied to one modern award and the employees and employers covered by it. The Fair Work Commission said the new case was set up specifically to develop a working-from-home term for the Clerks Award. The tribunal also said the term being developed is intended to support employers and employees in making “workable arrangements.” (fwc.gov.au) ### What changed compared with the old position? On August 27, 2026, the Commission said it had decided to change the Clerks Award to include a working-from-home provision. That matters because the existing consolidated award, as updated through July 1, 2026, did not yet include that new term. (fairwork.gov.au) The Commission has looked at remote-work settings in the Clerks Award before. In a separate earlier process linked to pandemic-era flexibility, it said there was a need to consider whether the award should provide a more enduring way to facilitate agreed working-from-home arrangements. That earlier history helps explain why the Commission reopened the issue in 2024 rather than treating remote work as only a COVID-era measure. (fwc.gov.au) ### Does this create an automatic right to work from home? The Commission’s public notice says it has decided to include a working-from-home provision, but the final legal text is still in draft and open for submissions until September 17. (fwc.gov.au) Based on the material published so far, the change creates a process inside the award rather than an automatic entitlement for every covered employee to work remotely whenever they choose. The Australian Services Union, in its submission to the case, argued for a term dealing with requests for working-from-home arrangements and said disputes would be easier to handle if acceptable grounds for refusing a request were identified. (fwc.gov.au) That submission is not the Commission’s final ruling, but it shows the case was framed around a request-and-response mechanism rather than a blanket right. ### Why did the Commission take up this issue at all? The Fair Work Commission said the matter was foreshadowed in the Final Report of the Modern Awards Review 2023–24. It also previously identified an evidentiary gap about how often Clerks Award employees work from home and how earlier flexibility provisions had been used. (fwc.gov.au) In April 2025, the Commission gathered fresh survey evidence from 398 employers and 799 employees in roles typically covered by the Clerks Award, according to the case data tables. That research formed part of the record in the current proceedings. (fwc.gov.au) ### What should employers and employees watch next? The draft determination is the next key document because it will show the exact wording of the proposed award clause and how the request process is meant to operate. The Commission said interested parties may file submissions on that draft until 5 p.m. AEST on Thursday, September 17, 2026. (fwc.gov.au) The Clerks Award’s history of variations will show when the final determination is made and when the new clause takes effect. Until that happens, the Commission’s August 27 decision and the draft determination in AM2024/34 are the main public markers for employers, unions and award-covered staff tracking the change. (fwc.gov.au) (dms.fwc.gov.au) (fwc.gov.au)