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While accepting an employer was entitled to issue a return-to-office directive, the Fair Work Commission has nonetheless ordered it to grant an exemption to an employee who requested to keep working remotely.

Commissioner Damian Sloan found the employer failed to consider the consequences of refusing the employee's request, and didn't provide any evidence to support the "reasonable business grounds" underpinning its refusal.

Late last year, Metcash Trading Ltd directed its workforce to return to the office for a minimum of three days per week. Up until that time, staff had been working from home under directions made during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The employee, who worked in an administrative role, asked to be exempt from the directive. As the parent of a teenager with cystic fibrosis, she said she was concerned about the risk of passing on a respiratory illness to her daughter...