Bank staffer's bid to work permanently from home fails

A bid by an ANZ Banking Group staff member to work permanently from home has been turned down by the Fair Work Commission.

Citing her concerns about catching COVID-19, the staff member began action against the company in the tribunal when her employer rejected her request to work from home five days a week.

But in handing down its decision this week, the commission ruled there was no medical reason stopping the business analyst, who works full-time, from attending ANZ's headquarters in Melbourne.

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The worker's requests were described as "unreasonable" by the commission's deputy president Ian Masson in his judgement.

"That ANZ should be expected to accommodate those fears no matter how disproportionate those fears may be to the risk is simply unreasonable," he said.

The ruling by the Fair Work Commission comes amid debate between workers and employers over demands to return to the office and hybrid work arrangements.

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Research by recruiting company Robert Half released last month found the number of workers mandated to attend the office five days a week has doubled in the last 12 months.

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In a sign that Australian companies are ditching pandemic work-from-home orders, only one in seven office workers currently have full flexibility with no mandated in-office days - a figure that has budged little in the past year.

However, while in 2023 the most common rate of office attendance was four days a week (at 28 per cent), this year that has shifted to the full five days a week.