Victorian Work-from-Home Law Faces Legal Fight as Vote Nears
MELBOURNE — Victoria’s plan to lock in a right to work from home two days a week is heading for a legal and political clash,. Victorian Work — full details…
MELBOURNE — Victoria’s plan to lock in a right to work from home two days a week is heading for a legal and political clash, with business groups preparing a High Court challenge as Premier Ben Carroll tries to push the bill through parliament this week.
The stakes are immediate. If the legislation clears parliament before the November state election, employer groups say they are ready to move fast, and several of the country’s largest property companies are already openly critical of Labor’s proposal.
Business groups line up for a constitutional fight
Tim Piper, chair of the Victorian Congress of Employer Associations and Victorian head of the Australian Industry Group, said the challenge would be serious.
“There’s no doubt that there will be a constitutional challenge by employer groups to this legislation if it goes ahead, and we fully expect that it will be a very strong and likely successful challenge,” Piper said.
Piper said he had been approached by “many companies” asking about the case and offering support for the legal effort.
“We have a duty to our members to make sure that legislation passed in Victoria is constitutionally valid and economically reasonable. This one is neither,” he said.
Bill stalled before election
The bill would give most employees the right to work from home two days a week, a measure Labor had hoped to push through before voters head to the polls in November. But the legislation has now run into a fresh hurdle.
According to the latest developments, the Coalition and crossbench have teamed up to send the bill to an inquiry, stalling it until after the election. That is a sharp shift from the earlier expectation that parliament would pass the proposal on Thursday.
The legal and parliamentary resistance matters beyond Victoria. The bill is being watched closely because it would be the first of its kind in Australia, and business groups argue it sets up a broader fight over whether a state can entrench a workplace right like this.
Labor first announced the plan in 2025, when then premier Jacinta Allan framed it as a response to backlash over the federal Coalition’s push for public servants to return to offices full-time. The Victorian version now faces a different test: whether it can survive both the chamber and the courts.
Carroll has said he wants the bill passed this week with some pro-business amendments, but the next move may belong to the employers’ lawyers. The challenge, if launched, would test a law designed to give workers two days at home each week — and it may do so before November arrives.
