A former IAG employee whose laptop was found to have only minimal keyboard activity when she worked from home has lost an unfair dismissal case against the insurer.

The employee, who spent almost 18 years at IAG, sought compensation after she was dismissed on February 20 from her role as Consultant Outbound Comms Disclosure.

She said she was targeted due to mental health issues and IAG had a premeditated plan to remove her.

A letter from her doctor said a diagnosed condition had significantly impacted her sleep, memory and functioning. She had experienced family bereavements in recent years that had a serious negative impact on her. 

Fair Work Commission Deputy President Thomas Roberts said aside from recent months, there was nothing to suggest she had been “anything other” than a valued employee since starting at IAG in 2005.

However, he ruled her dismissal this year was based on a valid reason. 

“I have little doubt that the factors underlying the applicant’s disconnection from work were serious and real. Her circumstances were all the more regrettable given the long period of satisfactory service she had given IAG

“Nonetheless … I am satisfied that the dismissal of the applicant was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable,” Mr Roberts said. 

From April last year, the former staffer - who has not since been re-employed - had difficulty meeting deadlines, was absent or uncontactable, and missed meetings. She had also met a manager on Microsoft Teams with a four-letter swear word written across her hand. 

A cyber activity review undertaken by IAG indicated she failed to work her 7.8 rostered hours for 44 of 49 working days, and performed no work on four days. She failed to start at 7.30am as designated on 47 days out of 49, and failed to finish at her 4pm finish time on 29 days. 

Mr Roberts said IAG’s charge of misconduct rather than underperformance was "a correct characterisation”. 

“The failure of the applicant to attend to her duties was not of a minor or incidental nature. It was on a scale and at a sufficient level of seriousness to constitute misconduct,” he said, adding her "shortcomings may have contributed to an increased difficulty for IAG meeting its legal obligations.”

IAG was fined in October after she failed to lodge a product disclosure statement with the regulator.

During October to December, IAG was recommending employees come back to its office, but she chose to work to work from home almost permanently. The key-stroke analysis on her laptop computer showed significant periods of minimal or no activity.

“I cannot believe this data. Sometimes the workload is a bit slow but I have never not worked. I mean, I may go to the shops from time to time but that is not for the entire day,” she said.

"I just don’t use this device. I doubt the data. I don’t believe for a minute it’s true.

“I have been going through a lot of personal issues which has caused a decline to my mental health and unfortunately I believe it has affected my performance and my work.”

There were extended periods where she was reading and checking the wording of documents, she said, adding she had “a few things going on” because of an injury and had to step out for medical appointments. She also said because she was not given a second monitor, she would use her television.

“I don't know if that's the reason why it's wrong,” she said. “I am sure I have been logging on time most of the days and if I was ever late I would log back on later to complete my hours.

"I was confused and shocked when presented with the data. I do doubt the accuracy … I did experience a lot of system issues.”

There was also no evidence she accessed documents on IAG file drives and Sharepoint, and platforms such as Planner and Jira, an essential part of her role and only possible on the laptop. The cyber review found she averaged less than 80 keystrokes an hour, and there were 200 hours with no keystroke activity. Once, she did produce 1830 keystrokes in an hour, or around half a page of text.

IAG said her average key strokes should have been upwards of 500 an hour.

See the ruling here.