Lucky Aussie workers get free tools from bosses

Lia Timson
Thursday, 10 July 2008 09:41

IT People - Enterprise

Contrary to a stingy trend uncovered in the United States where employers are resisting paying for laptops and mobile phones, bosses in Australia appear to be light years ahead on providing tools, reimbursing communication expenses and defining teleworking policies.

With the number of people working from home in Australia on the rise, employers seem to have understood that flexibility and productivity are more important than cost-cutting.

According to the most recent survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 25% of all workers – or 2.35 million people – worked some hours at home in 2005, up from 20% five years earlier. Of these, more than 724,500 people worked only or mainly at home, with more than eight in ten of them using both a computer and the internet to do so. The number is expected to increase given the current skills shortage, the need to negotiate flexible arrangements to attract workers and higher broadband penetration rates.

Teleworkers at the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), for example, have all their hardware, software and associated equipment provided for them. An RTA spokesman says the teleworking arrangement also covers the cost of work-related phone calls and communication links. The authority officialised teleworking in 1996 when it published its first ‘working from home’ policy, following a test pilot in 1993/4.  The policy is available to those working in computer systems analysis, data entry, computer planning, engineering and design, project management, telephone customer service and marketing, among other departments.(CONTINUED PAGE 2)