The bank also said Chandler’s “present circumstances had arisen because of life choices and preferences of the applicant and without the imprimatur of Westpac”.
In her argument, Chandler conceded there were benefits to in-person office attendance, but noted her team was split between offices in different states and that meetings were conducted virtually.
“This decision puts all employers on notice that they will need … genuine business reasons to refuse a flexible working request”
Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano
In the decision, Commission deputy president Thomas Roberts said that while he accepted Chandler’s circumstances arose out of personal choice, the bank did not provide “reasonable business grounds” to refuse her request.
Roberts also noted that Westpac failed to respond to Chandler’s request for flexible working arrangements in written form in the required 21 days.
Credit: Matt Golding
He said he factored in the failure to provide reasonable business grounds and the response within 21 days into his decision.
Roberts also noted that Chandler had been working from home “very successfully” for some years, and that her and her team had “performed at a very high level” together under this arrangement.
Responding to the decision, Westpac said it would consider the ruling, but that “we believe our current approach of 2 -3 days per week in the office strikes the right balance for our people and customers.”
Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano said working from home “is a right, not a privilege” and that the decision “paves the way for workers who have caring responsibilities to secure work from home rights”.
“Employers in the banking and finance industry are increasingly relying on the supposed benefit of ‘face to face’ contact as a reason to refuse requests for flexible working arrangements and that’s unacceptable,” Angrisano said.
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“This decision puts all employers on notice that they will need to have genuine business reasons to refuse a flexible working arrangement request,” Angrisano said.
The ruling comes after recent debate on employers’ work from home policies. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan in August said her government would give public and private sector workers the right to work from home at least two days a week.
Sam Nottle, principal lawyer at Jewell Hancock employment lawyers, said the Westpac decision should remind companies that they were legally obliged to respond to requests for flexible working arrangements within 21 days and provide grounds for refusing requests.
“Employers need to consider individual circumstances,” Nottle said.
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“If an employee has worked very well from home in the past, you do have to grapple with and address the business grounds on which you’re refusing the request,” Nottle said. “Westpac didn’t do that in this instance,” he said.
Nottle said a wide range of employees were able to apply for flexible arrangements under the Act, with parents of school-age children a broad category, and that employers needed to be prepared to follow correct processes and justify why they were requiring an individual worker to attend the office if they were refusing a request.
Professor Anya Johnson, head of discipline in work and organisational at the University of Sydney’s business school, echoed Nottle’s warning.
“To assume a blanket policy in a huge organisation that is just imposed regardless of people’s circumstances is going to create a lot of friction,” she said.
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Johnson said that flexible work is “an opportunity to be more inclusive for employees at different stages of their life, like the mother in this decision”.
Johnson added that establishing strong processes for employees to make such flexible work agreement requests, would not only help ensure companies meet their legal obligations, but help them better understand how their employees work.
This could lead organisations to better plan to maximise in-office engagement, and require employees to come in only when it’s of most benefit.
“Flexible working has created a bit of a catch 22, in that someone might be pressured to come in for, say, two days a week, but when they’re in, nobody else is there. They’re doing a virtual meeting from the office with colleagues at home and wondering ‘why did I bother coming in?’”
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