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An employee wrongly believed his organisation's formal process for remote-work approvals could be "arbitrarily changed", the Fair Work Commission has found in upholding his dismissal for serious misconduct.

The Bureau of Meteorology dismissed the research scientist in June 2023 for breaching its policies and procedures in mid-2022, when he:

• accessed Bureau IT networks on a personal device without permission;
• failed to comply with work-from-home (WFH) arrangements by working overseas;
• lied to his manager regarding his whereabouts; and
• failed to comply with lawful and reasonable directions.

It noted similar breaches occurred in early 2023 when the employee failed to follow directions to work from the Melbourne office and instead performed duties while in the United States...