A Westpac employee has won a Fair Work case to WFH every day

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has ruled in favour of a Westpac employee who requested to work from home permanently.

The bank denied the NSW woman’s request in March 2025, saying she needed to be at a south Sydney office twice a week.

The FWC found Westpac did not have “reasonable business grounds” to refuse her request.

Here’s what to know.

Westpac

Westpac is one of Australia’s largest banks. It offers a hybrid working model to its employees, meaning they can work from the office and remotely.

The bank’s policy is that employees must work from one of its offices at least two days a week.

Westpac’s website says: “Flexibilityis something we live and breathe — and we’ll want you to as well.”

The case

Karlene Chandler has worked at Westpac both remotely and in person since 2002. From 2022 to 2024, she had an arrangement where she was only required to be in the office one day a month.

In January, Chandler requested to work from home every day because she needed to drop off and collect her children from a school two hours away from the nearest Westpac office.

The bank rejected this request, as well as a request to work from a bank branch closer to Chandler’s home.

You have read 0 articles this year.

Your contribution ensures The Daily Aus can continue doing the work you love.

The law

An employee is entitled to request “flexible working arrangements” if they’ve been with an employer for at least a year.

They also need to meet at least one category from a range of criteria, such as living with a disability or being the parent of a school-aged child.

Under legislation updated in 2022, employees can raise disputes with the workplace tribunal if an employer rejects flexible work requests.

Decision

FWC Deputy President Thomas Roberts ruled in favour of Chandler, saying the tasks she performed at work could be completed remotely.

He said Westpac had no reason to refuse Chandler’s request as “she has been working remotely for a number of years and doing so very successfully.”

In his ruling, Roberts said employers must have “reasonable business grounds,” such as a loss of productivity, to refuse an employee’s flexible work arrangement request.

Response

A Westpac spokesperson said: “We believe our current approach of 2-3 days per week in the office strikes the right balance for our people and customers.”

“Westpac will consider the ruling.“

In a post on Instagram, the Finance Sector Union wrote: “This is a fantastic win that demonstrates employers need to take flexible working seriously and genuinely consider workers’ situation, if they want to retain talented staff in the industry.”