4.1 Work-Life Arrangements

All employees are entitled to a Flexible Work Arrangement. The nature of that arrangement may include:

1. Changing hours of work (including increasing or decreasing hours of work);

2. Hybrid work inclusive of working on campus and a pre-approved remote location in Australia such as working from home;

3. Job share; and

4. Changing patterns of work or working compressed hours.

Hybrid work is the norm for academic employees.

While hybrid work is the norm for professional employees, professional employees must request hybrid work via sub-clause 4.1(e) below and advise of any changes to their approved work location via email.

Professional employee supervisors may identify occasional tasks or events that cannot be performed off campus, and if required to be performed on a day that would otherwise be worked remotely, the employer will provide as much notice as practicable for the employee to attend campus. The professional employee may work remotely on another day, as agreed between the supervisor and the employee, to be rescheduled as soon as possible and at a time that is suitable to the employee and no later than four (4) weeks later.

Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA)

1. An application for a FWA must be made in writing by an individual employee or a group of employees to the relevant supervisor. The application must set out the details of the arrangement proposed inclusive of the duration sought by the employee. All approved FWA’s will be reviewed annually or as otherwise agreed.

2. In most cases, the duration of a FWA will be for a twelve (12) month period.

3. An employee may also request an ad-hoc arrangement without a FWA application. Ad-hoc arrangements would generally be one-off or a short-term arrangement for circumstances that are not ongoing.

4. Where an employee works as part of a team or shares responsibilities with other employees, the team, work group or the supervisor may meet and co-design a reasonable set of FWAs that apply to the whole work group.

5. The University will endeavour to respond to an application for a FWA within fourteen (14) days, however it will provide a formal written response to the request no later than twenty-one (21) days later advising whether the request is granted or refused.

6. The supervisor will consider the impact on the employee, or employees in the working group and all relevant factors presented by the employee/s, including any caring responsibility, disability, age, and/or whether the employee or a member of their household or immediate family is experiencing family, domestic or intimate partner violence. The supervisor will meet with the employee/s before any FWA is refused, or to discuss any revisions to the application that may be proposed.

7. Agreement to a FWA will not be unreasonably withheld.

8. Following any refusal, the employee/s or the supervisor may discuss reasonable alternative FWAs. Where an alternative arrangement is agreed to, it will be implemented.

9. If the application is refused, the response will include details of the reasons for the refusal.

10. If a decision is not made in twenty-one (21) days or the parties are not able to reach an agreement, an individual employee or work group may request a review of the supervisor’s decision or failure to determine the application.

Right to Disconnect

1. The University will ensure that an employee is not contacted by phone or electronic communication, except in the circumstances outlined in sub-clause 4.1(f)(ii) below, where it is stated or implied that a response or consideration is required prior to the time at which the employee will next be working their normal hours. Managers, supervisors and students will be informed that they cannot expect responses to communications outside of working hours, subject to the exceptions outlined below.

2. An employee will not be required or expected to respond to such contact outside of the following circumstances:

   • During an employee’s regular working hours;

   • Pursuant to the relevant clause of this Agreement (e.g. notification of an unplanned absence, during authorised overtime, call back to work, notification of rostering changes, or paid on-call arrangements); or

   • In the case of a genuine emergency, such as where there is a serious immediate risk to students or major University property.

   For the purposes of this clause only, an academic employee’s regular working hours are deemed to be 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, or where they are scheduled to perform work outside of these hours (such as the delivery or coordination of a timetabled class), their regular working hours will include those hours they are scheduled to work.

3. An employee will not be prejudiced in their employment on the basis that they have not responded to communications outside of their normal working hours, unless that communication falls into one of the exceptions in sub-clause 4.1(f)(ii) above.