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"Knowingly and repeatedly" flouting directions not to catch up on work after hours amounted to serious misconduct, the Fair Work Commission has ruled in rejecting an employee's unfair dismissal claim.

Sacking the employee wasn't a disproportionate response, Deputy President Bryce Cross found, because the misconduct breached the employer's "soundly based and clearly necessary" directions.

In October last year, Church Missionary Society sacked the employee, who wrote for its publications, for failing to comply with directions it issued on four occasions.

In claiming unfair dismissal, he argued there was no sound, defensible, or well-founded basis for the employer's decision. He said it was also disproportionate given his age and health, and unjust, because the employer failed to reasonably accommodate his disability by allowing him to work flexibly when he was feeling "temporarily unwell"...