Woman fired after her company uses tech to monitor her WFH performance: Report

A woman in Australia was fired from the company she had been working with for 18 years after her employers used keystroke technology to find out that she was not typing enough while working from home (WFH). According to a report by 7News on Wednesday (August 9), the Fair Work Commission (FWC) rejected an unfair dismissal application by Suzie Cheikho, stating she was fired from Insurance Australia Group (IAG) for a valid reason of misconduct.

The FWC's findings said that Cheikho was responsible for creating insurance documents, meeting regulatory timelines and monitoring WFH compliance among other roles. The findings added that she was fired from IAG on February 20 for missing deadlines and meetings, being absent and unaccountable, and failing to lodge a product disclosure statement which led to the industry regulator fining IAG.

Woman claims she was targeted

A month later, Cheikho claimed to the commission that her company had a "premeditated plan to remove her from the business and that she was targeted due to her mental health issues."

However, the findings showed that the woman's dismissal did not come without warning. The 7News report said that Cheikho received a formal warning in November last year about her output, and she was put on a performance improvement plan.

A detailed review of cyber activity carried out

Cheikho was the subject of a detailed review of her cyber activity. The review took a look at how many times she pressed buttons on her keyboard on 49 working days from October to December last year.

The review found out that she started late on 47 days, did not work her rostered hours for 44 days, finished early on 29 days and performed zero hours of work on four days.

It also found on the days she did log on she had “very low keystroke activity” and recorded zero strokes over 117 hours in October, 143 hours in November, and 60 hours in December.

According to FWC President Thomas Roberts, the evidence showed the woman was not working as she was required to do during her designated working hours while being monitored.

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