An Australian woman has been fired from the firm where she worked for 18 years after the firm used keystroke technology to see whether she was working her designated hours during her work from home, New York Post reported. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) rejected an unfair dismissal application brought forward by former Insurance Australia Group (IAG) consultant Suzie Cheikho. The FWC found Cheiko was fired for a “valid reason of misconduct”.
As per the FWC’s findings, Cheiko was fired on February 20 for missing deadlines and meetings and remaining uncontactable, among other things. However, a month later, Cheiko claimed to the FWC that her former employer had a “premeditated plan to remove her from the business and that she was targeted due to her mental health issues.”
Cheiko was responsible for creating insurance documents, meeting regulatory timelines and monitoring “work from home compliance”, among other things.
A review of cyber activity
Online findings show that Cheiko was given a formal warning in November 2022 about her work output and was even put on a performance improvement plan. She was subjected to a review of cyber activity under which the number of times she physically pressed her keyboard on 49 working days from October to December was analysed. It was found that Cheiko did not work for her designated hours for 44 days. She started late on 47 days and finished early on 29 days, while performing zero hours work on 4 days.
The days which saw some activity from her, “very low keystroke activity” was recorded from her end. As per the report, zero strokes were recorded over 117 hours in October, 143 hours in November and 60 hours in December. Cheiko averaged 54 strokes per hour over the surveillance period, showing “she was not presenting for work and performing work as required”.
Cheiko’s response on surveillance data
When Cheiko was presented with the data during a formal meeting, she did not “believe for a minute” the data was true, However, she did not present any evidence to show she had been online and working either. Cheiko had said, “Sometimes the workload is a bit slow, but I have never not worked,” she told her managers,” the FWC findings showed.
She asked for some time to put forward a response to the findings.
In a written response, Cheiko said she looked at the data to find an explanation for the missing hours. However, she said she “really can’t recall why or how it’s that low”. “I have tried to go through emails and messages to see if I can explain it,” she wrote.
Cheiko even fell on her “personal issues” in order to explain her side of the story. She said the issues had caused her mental health to decline, adding she believed it also affected her performance and her work. She said she always started on time but had “a few things going on” due to an injury.
The FWC ruling said she once attended a Microsoft Teams meeting with her manager discussing her performance with ‘F***’ written across her hand.
FWC Deputy President Thomas Roberts said that Cheikho “was not working as she was required to do during her designated working hours” while monitored.