Work-from-home rights in law ‘a bridge too far’: wealth boss
AMP chief executive Alexis George has warned that giving employees a legal right to work from home would be a “bridge too far”, saying this would fail to consider the needs of different businesses that require staff in the office full-time.
The Victorian government sparked national debate last week when Premier Jacinta Allan vowed to give public and private-sector workers in the state the right to work at home at least two days a week.
CEO of AMP, Alexis George: “While I’m CEO, we will have some flexibility in our workforce.”Credit: Aaron Francis
George, who runs a business with about 2500 staff, said she supported flexibility for staff, but enshrining in law a right to work from home was “really difficult”.
While AMP allows most full-time staff to work from home up to three days a week, George said there were businesses – such as some start-ups in a “collaborative” phase – that needed people in the office full-time.
“I do think that it’s ... different horses for different courses, and I think mandating this is really difficult,” George said.
“At the end of the day, we know there’s a lot of retail people out there who have to work five days a week in the office, so I don’t know if [enshrining WFH in law] is necessary,” she said, speaking after AMP delivered its first-half results.
“I think we live in a society where values and purpose are really important. They’re important to our employees and good employers are going to make that part of their value proposition. To start mandating these things, I think, is a bit of a bridge too far.”
In contrast, the Finance Sector Union backed the Victorian policy last week.
George stressed that AMP was happy to accommodate flexible working, saying its policy of staff spending at least two days in the week in the office provided balance between flexibility and having the time to interact with people.
“I’ve said this to our staff: while I’m CEO, we will have some flexibility in our workforce,” George said.
While the policy applied to most staff, George said in some parts of the business such as AMP Bank, which she called a “start-up”, the company may ask most people to work in the office during periods of “collaborating and trying to deliver quickly”.
AMP accommodates flexible working arrangements. Credit: Erin Jonasson
As business leaders, unions, community groups and others prepare for the government’s economic reform roundtable this month in Canberra, George said key priorities should be simplifying regulation; tax reform; and embracing technology. She acknowledged tax reform was hard politically, but said there was time to have the debate with the community.
“I do think this roundtable is a good time to start that debate, but it takes time to educate the community on the benefits over the long term, and I don’t think this is going to happen in the next 12 months, but I’m glad we’re at least starting,” she said.
George was speaking after AMP reported results that were slightly below market expectations for the June half.
AMP is one of Australia’s oldest financial businesses, and it has been through a period of major change after being slammed at the banking royal commission, which was followed by a series of asset sales. George said it was now pivoting towards growth.
AMP reported a 4.9 per cent fall in first-half statutory profit to $98 million, after incurring costs relating to “business simplification”, litigation and remediation. On an underlying basis, profits rose 9.2 per cent to $131 million.
The biggest source of profits was AMP’s platform business, where underlying profits rose 7.4 per cent to $58 million, while profits in its superannuation and investment business were steady at $34 million.
AMP Bank’s profits rose by $1 million to $36 million, as it reported slightly higher margins as customers rolled over from fixed-rate loans to more profitable variable-rate products.
The company will pay an interim dividend of 2¢ a share. AMP closed 4.8 per cent higher on Thursday.
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