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The Fair Work Commission has refused to make orders allowing an employee to work from home while also providing primary care for two young children, finding such an arrangement carried "a very high risk of interruption" that could lead to "error and inefficiency".

Commissioner Alana Matheson acknowledged that the employer's refusal was based on its "assumptions" about the employee's caregiving responsibilities.

However, she said: "I do not consider those assumptions to be misplaced. Children aged two and four years require a high level of attention and care and are not of an age at which they are self-sufficient for significant periods of time."

In January this year the full-time payroll officer, employed by building materials supplier Knauf Gypsum, had requested to continue working from home on Mondays and Fridays, after the employer gave notice of discontinuing a hybrid arrangement that had been in place since 2024...