More companies allowing the option to work January 26
More and more Australian publishers are offering staff the option to work on January 26, despite it officially being the Australia Day public holiday.
Many Australian companies, including Woolworths, Telstra and BHP, have recently announced they will now provide the option for workers to choose whether or not to work on the public holiday. Several publishing houses, including Affirm Press, Fremantle Press, Simon & Schuster and Hardie Grant have offered the option for a number of years, while publishers such as Hachette will be implementing the policy for the first time this year.
Hachette Australia CEO Louise Stark told Books+Publishing that the company’s new policy ‘has been well received’. Workers are now free to work January 26 and take the day as leave within the next six months.
At Fremantle Press, employees can also decide to work on January 26 or take the day as a public holiday; those who work can take an alternate day off within a fortnight. ‘The office is closed to the general public so that those who come to work can use it as a day of reflection and action without direct-to-public activity. This has been in place for a number of years,’ said head of sales and marketing Claire Miller.
‘As an integral part of the City of Fremantle, we do not “celebrate” January 26,’ added Miller, highlighting the city’s alternate event, One Day in Fremantle, which was implemented in 2017. The event takes place on Saturday, 28 January at Walyalap Koort (the heart of Fremantle) and includes a smoking ceremony and cultural activities.
On the day, staff from the Fremantle Press office will attend a Q&A on the First Nations Voice to Parliament with the mayor of Fremantle, in order to report back to the team and incorporate that knowledge into the organisation’s Reconciliation Action Plan.
‘We advertise the event in-house and employees are given the option of taking time off in lieu, should they wish to go,’ said Miller. ‘This is in line with our ongoing activities, such as making sure that employees who attend after-hours Noongar language classes get to recoup some of those hours as leave.’
Affirm Press’s Laura McNicol Smith told Books+Publishing the publisher has had a policy ‘fully supported by all’ since 2018.
‘We decided unanimously as a team that we weren’t comfortable taking the Australia Day public holiday when for many fellow Australians it is a time to mourn,’ said McNicol Smith. Each year since then the office has remained open on 26 January and the ‘vast majority’ of the publisher’s staff have taken up the option to work on the public holiday and take another day in lieu.
‘Affirm Press welcomes the recent policy changes from some of Australia’s biggest organisations such as Network Ten and the University of Wollongong to give their employees this same choice to work on 26 January, as well as moves by some institutions to broaden what can be celebrated on 26 January.
‘It’s our hope that as a nation, whatever the date, we can come up with a day that celebrates all aspects of what it means to be Australian and which will have extra meaning for all Australians.’
Category: Local news
