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Employees must establish a clear nexus between their obligations as parents of school-age children and their desired working arrangements, rather than simply rely on their parenting status, if they expect to win disputes over flexible work refusals, a new ruling shows.

Fair Work Commission Deputy President Lyndall Dean accepted that the employee had two school-aged children and shared parental responsibilities with his wife, but noted there was no evidence to demonstrate that he was required to work from home two days per week, as he had requested, in order to meet those responsibilities.

In determining the technical specialist's dispute over the denial of his request by healthcare software provider Intersystems Australia, she heard that since the pandemic, the employer had allowed all staff to work from home two days per week.

This changed in November 2024, when the employer advised that starting from 1 February 2025, it would require everyone – with the exception of one department – to resume working solely in its office...