![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](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/unswform2022&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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