A retail bank employee in Australia has been granted the right to work from home all the time by the country’s workplace tribunal.
The Fair Work Commission, whose decision on the case is being closely watched in Australia, ruled in favour of Karlene Chandler, who challenged her employer, Westpac, which said that she must work from a corporate office two days a week.
Chandler is employed part-time in Westpac’s mortgage business and has been with the bank for 23 years.
The ruling said Westpac had allowed Chandler to work remotely, but reversed this earlier this year.
A Westpac spokesperson said the bank was considering the commission’s ruling, adding that its return to office policies were designed to “ensure meaningful collaboration within teams while providing flexibility to work from home”.
Australia’s financial sector has been moving towards having staff back in the office more often than not, but the shift has been slow at retail banks, with hybrid working popular.
Staff at investment banks are typically back more in the office than their retail banking counterparts.
Chandler argued she lived out of Sydney and that travelling to a Westpac corporate office would take almost two hours.
The commission’s ruling said that Chandler was told by a Westpac manager that “working from home is no substitution for childcare”. The commission said there was no reasonable ground for Westpac to refuse Chandler’s remote working request.
The commission can allow appeals of its decisions.
Reuters was unable to contact Chandler through the solicitor who represented her at the Fair Work Commission.
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