Does Victoria's WFH Law Apply to Small Business? The 1 July 2027 Deferral Explained

Yes — but small employers get extra time. Under the Victorian Government's plan, workplaces with fewer than 15 employees would not have to comply until 1 July 2027, while employers with 15 or more employees would be covered from 1 September 2026. This is a staggered start date, not a carve-out.

Critically, the Government has expressly ruled out a small-business exemption. The later date is a deferral — more time to update policies and contracts — not a permanent pass. Every Victorian employer whose staff can reasonably work from home is expected to be in scope eventually, regardless of size.

Status check: As at 19 July 2026, this is not yet law. The Equal Opportunity Amendment (Work from Home) Bill 2026 was introduced to the Victorian Parliament on 16 July 2026 and has passed the Assembly second reading, but it has not passed both houses and has not received Royal Assent. The dates and rules below reflect the bill as introduced and could still change before it passes.

The bill sets two commencement points based on employer size:

Both dates come from the Premier of Victoria's announcement (premier.vic.gov.au, original release dated 4 March 2026), which states the Government will "protect work from home in law from 1 September" 2026 and that smaller workplaces have until 1 July 2027. Neither date is locked in until the bill passes both houses and receives Royal Assent.

The headline entitlement is the same for both groups: a right to work from home two days per week for full-time employees whose roles can reasonably be performed from home, and pro rata for part-time and casual employees. The only difference at this stage is when the obligation begins.

A deferral pushes back the start date; an exemption would remove the obligation entirely. The Victorian Government has chosen the former. It has publicly ruled out exempting small businesses, framing the extra year as time to adjust rather than a permanent escape.

The practical consequences for a business with fewer than 15 staff:

• You are not obliged to grant the new two-day entitlement before 1 July 2027 (on the announced timetable).
• You will be obliged from that date, assuming the bill passes as introduced.
• The breathing room is for getting ready — auditing roles, drafting a policy, updating contracts — not for ignoring the change.

Because the right is built into Victoria's equal-opportunity (anti-discrimination) framework rather than federal industrial law, unresolved disputes would be handled by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) through conciliation first, and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) if conciliation fails — not the Fair Work Commission.

This is still not confirmed. The line is "fewer than 15 employees", but the counting rules have not been settled. Key questions employers near the threshold should watch as the bill moves through Parliament:

• Headcount or full-time equivalent (FTE)? Whether a part-timer counts the same as a full-timer is unverified. (For comparison, the Fair Work Act's separate "small business employer" definition uses a 15-headcount test that counts most casuals only if engaged on a regular and systematic basis — but that is a different law and may not carry across here.)
• Across multiple sites or related entities? Whether staff at different locations, or across associated companies, are aggregated is unconfirmed.
• What's the snapshot date? How and when the count is taken has not been confirmed.

Do not assume the threshold mirrors any existing definition. We will update this page once the counting test is settled. If you are sitting close to 15 staff, plan as though you could be in the 15+ group.

Use the time to 1 July 2027 to prepare, not to wait. A lightweight version of the work larger employers are doing now:

• Audit your roles. Map which jobs can reasonably be performed from home and which genuinely cannot (the entitlement covers employees "whose roles can reasonably be performed from home"). How that test will be applied has not been settled, so document your reasoning. Note too that the bill excludes employees on probation, apprentices, trainees, interns and graduate program participants, as well as regulated workers and regulated businesses under the Fair Work Act.
• Budget for equipment and costs. The bill requires employers to cover the reasonable costs of the work-from-home arrangement, including essential equipment (hardware and software) and secure access to the employer's information systems. For a small business this is the line item most likely to be missed — price it before 2027, not after.
• Draft a simple WFH policy covering how the two days are set (two days per week for full-timers, pro rata for part-time and casual staff), work health and safety at home, equipment and data security. Whether the two days are employee-elected or employer-directed is not yet settled, so keep the policy flexible.
• Review contracts and any enterprise agreement. How the new right interacts with awards and agreements is untested.
• Budget and plan operationally for coverage on remote days.

Waiting until mid-2027 is risky: the bill is still before Parliament and can change, several rules (including refusal grounds and remedies) are unsettled, and you may have less time to react than you expect. Our Victorian WFH eligibility tool walks through who is likely to be covered, and our employer hub has the broader compliance picture.

If you work for a Victorian business with fewer than 15 staff, the proposed two-day Victorian entitlement would not apply to you until 1 July 2027 (on the announced timetable). But you are not without options in the meantime.

The federal right to request flexible working arrangements under section 65 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) already applies regardless of employer size — including in small businesses — today. It is a right to request, not an automatic entitlement, and it is limited to certain categories of employee: parents or carers of a school-age-or-younger child, carers, employees with disability, employees aged 55 or older, those experiencing family or domestic violence (or living with someone who is), and pregnant employees. You generally need 12 months' continuous service (eligible regular casuals can qualify too).

Under section 65, your employer must respond in writing within 21 days and may only refuse on reasonable business grounds after genuinely discussing it with you. Disputes go to the Fair Work Commission, which can conciliate and, since 2023, make binding orders. You can prepare a request with our flexible work request tool.

These are two separate schemes from two different levels of government. The Victorian bill sits in state anti-discrimination law (the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic)); the federal right sits in industrial law (the Fair Work Act). They differ on who qualifies, what you get, and where disputes go:

In short, the Victorian scheme is broader on who can claim it and gives an automatic entitlement, but is narrower in scope (WFH only, two days a week). Our existing explainer covers the Victorian scheme in full: Victoria's work-from-home law for 2026.

Even with the bill before Parliament, several important points are unconfirmed. Watch for them as it moves through the remaining stages:

• How the 15-employee threshold is counted (headcount vs FTE; across sites/entities).
• The exact grounds an employer can lawfully refuse on. Lawyers expect a "reasonable business grounds"-style test, possibly a higher bar than the federal one because it sits in the discrimination framework — but the refusal test and the standard VCAT would apply are not settled.
• Penalties and remedies at VCAT (orders to grant the arrangement, compensation, costs) are inferred from the Equal Opportunity Act machinery, not confirmed for this right.
• Whether the two days are employee-elected or employer-directed.

Answered by the bill, and no longer open: pro-rata treatment for part-time and casual employees; the excluded groups (probation, apprentices, trainees, interns, graduate program participants, regulated workers and regulated businesses); and the employer's obligation to cover reasonable costs, essential hardware and software, and secure system access.

The single biggest uncertainty is constitutional. Most Victorian private-sector workers are in the national (Fair Work) system. There is a genuine question whether a state law creating a WFH entitlement is valid for those employees, given section 109 of the Constitution and section 26 of the Fair Work Act, which is intended to exclude state industrial laws. The Government has deliberately housed the right in anti-discrimination law to reduce that risk, but business groups (the Victorian Chamber, Property Council and HIA among them) and several legal commentators expect a constitutional challenge if the law passes as introduced. The right may not survive a challenge for Fair Work-covered employees. Until then, the Government quantifies the benefit at "$110 a week or $5,308 every year" — a figure attributed to the Premier's release, not an independently verified saving.