Addressing Wellbeing for Remote and Home Working in Australia

Abstract

Working outside of a physical workplace is expanding through the growth of the gig economy and because of the working from home processes enforced as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working outside of the physical confines of a single workplace has always been present across many industries, such as transport and construction, education, defence, and mining. With the development of the online economy, the nature of business and working has been transformed. The internet, mobile phones, and specialist apps have supported new business development, disrupted industries, and opened new ways of working beyond the traditional workplace, including gig work. The COVID-19 pandemic forced millions to work away from the workplace, typically at home. The trend globally is towards working away from the traditional and regulated workplace. This chapter will examine worker wellbeing external working arrangements in two different contexts in Australia: long distance commuting in the West Australian mining sector and enforced working from home arrangements occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.