Australia
Significant flexible working arrangement request granted by the Fair Work Commission (case law)
Impact date: 20 October 2025 The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recently granted an employee's request to work from home five days per week due to her caring responsibilities for her children, despite the employer's recently introduced mandatory office attendance policy and the employee's election to move a significant distance away from the workplace.
The FWC found the employee had compelling evidence of her need to work from home due to her need to provide transport for her children, her partner's absence due to work commitments, the significant time she needed to spend commuting to the office, her longstanding practice of working from home, and her excellent work performance.
The FWC also found that the employer had not complied with the process for dealing with flexible working arrangement requests under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act), including that they did not respond within the 21-day time limit, they did not consult with the employee before rejecting the request, and their response did not address the 'consequential impact' on the employee. The employer also did not have 'reasonable business grounds' to refuse the request – a general 'impact on efficiency' was not sufficient to constitute a reasonable business ground.
Employer implications/action needed When responding to an employee's request for flexible working arrangements, an employer must ensure it strictly complies with the process under the FW Act, in particular the 21-day time limit for response. Employers seeking to deny a flexible working request should ensure they have valid reasonable business grounds for doing so which should include specific examples and not just general statements of 'inefficiency'.
Employer risk Employers who do not adequately respond to a flexible work arrangement request may be subject to orders requiring them to allow flexible working arrangements.
New psychosocial risk regulations in Victoria
Impact date: The new regulations came into effect on 1 December 2025. From 1 December 2025, new psychological health regulations commenced in Victoria.
These regulations are similar, but contain slight differences, to other regulations already in effect in other states and territories of Australia.
Psychosocial hazards are work-related factors with potential to cause a negative psychosocial response that creates a risk to an employee's health or safety, such as bullying, sexual harassment, aggression or violence, and exposure to traumatic events.
The new regulations focus on risk management and create specific obligations for Victorian employers to identify psychosocial hazards in their workplaces, take reasonable steps to eliminate or reduce the associated risks, and review risk control measures.
These obligations apply to employees, independent contractors, and labor-hire workers.
The regulations do not go so far as to require Victorian employers to put in place written prevention plans for identified psychosocial hazards (as is required in Queensland). However, WorkSafe Victoria has developed a template prevention plan to guide the risk assessment process.
Employer implications/action needed Employers need to comply with the obligations to identify and control psychosocial hazards in their workplaces. Employers should review their current approach to managing psychosocial risks, and begin considering what control measures will be most effective in their workplace to prevent psychosocial hazards. Employers will also need to ensure workers and managers are given sufficient instruction, training and supervision on the management of psychosocial risk, and systems are established for them to report and respond to risks identified in the workplace.
Employer risk Employers may be prosecuted for failing to identify and implement controls against psychosocial risks.
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