Her main interactions with the India-based team are over Teams every second day, and because the Melbourne-based employees are in different buildings, she also meets them via Teams, Lloyd told the tribunal, arguing her presence in the office was unnecessary.

She said she feared contracting coronavirus because of her age, and that she found being in the office stressful. Lloyd, who was asked by Masson during the hearing to remove her mask so he could see facial expressions, told the Fair Work Commission she minimised the time she spent outside the home or her car and permanently wore a respirator when she was in public.

“She says these measures have assisted her [to] avoid any respiratory illness since 2020,” Masson wrote in his judgment.

However, ANZ argued its current expectation that staff spend at least half their time in an ANZ workplace was “already a significant amount of flexibility”, and there was no medical reason underpinning Lloyd’s fears.

The bank told the tribunal Lloyd occasionally attended the office until November, had recently travelled interstate to care for her mother, and occasionally left her house to “undertake required tasks”.

Loading

“In doing so, you have shown that you can and do break from your reported self-isolation despite the concerns you hold,” the bank said. “On this basis, ANZ believes the attendance expectations it holds of you are not unreasonable.”

While Masson acknowledged the risk of contracting a serious illness from COVID-19 increased with age, he said Lloyd did not demonstrate she had an underlying medical condition that would make her vulnerable to the disease. He also conceded she could “theoretically perform” her duties from home.

In a statement, ANZ said it was pleased with Masson’s judgment but declined to comment further out of respect for its employee.