The mother-of-two was accused of trying to avoid the inconvenience of office-based work.
A Sydney mother has won the right to work from home after a fair work dispute with her employer, who she said forced her back into the office despite knowing she cared for a child with special needs.
Laura Kliffen, who works as a support specialist at real estate software company Reapit, said she had been pressured by her employer to return to the office after working remotely for almost a decade.
Kliffen said the directive to return to the CBD-located office would not work for her family as she looked after two young children, one of whom has special needs, and she was responsible for getting them to daycare and school.
She also claimed travelling to the office would require several hours on public transport from her Berowra Heights home.
Kliffen said her mental health and the “wellbeing of my family” would be severely impacted by the “significant change” in her routine, with her daughter already showing increased levels of anxiety and an escalation of problematic behaviour due to Kliffen attending the office.
Reapit said it had changed its business model to require all employees to work at least partly from the office in order to “facilitate appropriate and effective relationships, training, communications and awareness”.
The company also highlighted that Kliffen had been seen at a social lawn bowls event for the company, but had not been seen in the office.
Pushing back, Kliffen said of the 11 people on her team, six have hybrid working arrangements including three based in Manila, two are based in Brisbane and one is based in Sydney.
Four of her team members also work fully remotely, including two from Sydney, one on the Sunshine Coast and one in Melbourne.
Reapit said Kliffen was trying to avoid the “cost, time and personal inconvenience” of commuting to the Sydney office, and claims there would likely be “significant loss” in efficiency resulting from Kliffen working exclusively from home, despite her working remotely since 2017 with no impact on her work.
While the claims went back and forth between the employer and employee, the Fair Work Commission ultimately decided to side with Kliffen.
Fair Work ordered that as of June this year, Kliffen would be permitted to continue working from home and would only be required to attend the Sydney office one day per fortnight, also allowing her to start at a later time to allow for school and daycare drop off.
“I accept that the applicant has genuine reasons for requesting the arrangement she seeks,” the decision reads.
It also states that while “face to face interactions” in the office may have benefits, “only a small number of the applicant’s team members are actually based in Sydney”.
“While the respondent may desire consistent working practices across all employees, individual employees may confront differing circumstances and some of those circumstances attract rights under the Act,” it continued.
“An outcome that is ‘fair’ may involve extending additional support and flexibility to employees in certain circumstances.”