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A dispute over a flexible work request, which was made by an employee over 55 and denied on safety grounds, has been dismissed due to not meeting the conditions required for arbitration in the Fair Work Commission.

The employee's reasons for making the request were "completely understandable", but they weren't directly linked to her age, Commissioner Stephen Crawford found.

The Costco employee has had a flexible working arrangement in place since 2018, whereby she works from 6am to 230pm on Mondays through to Thursdays, and from 630am to 1230pm on Sundays.

In April this year, she submitted a request to compress the same number of working hours into four days (Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays), with a start time of 4am each day.

Costco refused, stating the arrangement would create safety issues due to a lack of supervision at 4am. It also raised concerns about paying overtime, given the employee would be working more than eight hours, on three days per week...