( dpa ) - Employers are getting a free ride when workers answer phones and send e-mails while travelling to and from work, Australia's unions argued Tuesday.
"Many businesses already pay their staff to work from home, so it's logical to pay them when they make their commuting more productive," Unions New South Wales chief John Robertson said.
With some employees spending four hours a day commuting by train and bus, they could work three weeks a month rather than four if their work during train and bus commutes were factored in.
Robertson wants train carriages to be fitted with wireless internet connections to be makeshift business centres for white-collar workers.
Employer groups decried the proposal as impracticable.
One caller to talkback radio said specious train delays could result in mountains of false overtime and asked whether workers "would be docked time when the train went through a tunnel and the connection dropped out?"