The ‘Right to Work from Home’ – A New Legal Reality for Employers

The Victorian Government has introduced legislation that would give eligible employees a legal right to work from home, not just a right to request it. If passed, the reforms are expected to commence as soon as 1 September 2026.

On its face, two days per week may not seem significant. But the real shift is not the number, it is the way this entitlement is structured and enforced. This will impact employers across all sectors.

By embedding the right in the Equal Opportunity Act, this reform reframes working from home from a matter of policy and discretion to a potential human rights issue, with disputes to be escalated through the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) and VCAT.

Join Dan Feldman (Managing Partner, HR Legal) as he cuts through the headlines and explains what this means in practice, including:

• What the proposed right actually requires (and who it applies to)
• Why the enforcement framework matters more than the “two days”
• How to respond to work from home requests
• What “reasonableness” will look like when requests are challenged
• The risks of moving hybrid work from discretion to legal entitlement
• How employers should be preparing now

While many organisations have already settled into hybrid models post COVID, these changes shift the landscape, requiring employers to justify decisions that were once discretionary.

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