Infosys worker who wouldn’t go back to its Sydney office after Covid faces referral to Australian Federal Police
Imran Karim Budhwani’s job was to fix his colleague’s computers but he refused to go back to the office. When he was sacked, he brought an unfair dismissal claim. It didn’t go well.
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A man who refused to return to his employer’s Sydney office after the Covid pandemic faces being referred to police for allegedly giving misleading evidence to the Fair Work Commission.
Imran Karim Budhwani went to the FWC claiming he had been unfairly dismissed by IT giant Infosys, but a decision published this week went against him. Badly.
In 2018, Infosys employed Mr Budhwani to look after colleague’s computers, as well as printers and scanners at its North Sydney headquarters. When Covid hit, Mr Budhwani did not get vaccinated but told Infosys the opposite.
On November 2 last year, his manager learned that Infosys had relaxed its rules meaning unvaccinated workers could return to HQ.
Mr Budhwani was told to come in the following week.
A week later he revealed he’d left Sydney.
Infosys assumed Mr Budhwani was still in NSW. He wasn’t.
On November 24, the company told him to return from December 11 or provide evidence explaining why he couldn’t.
Mr Budhwani emailed to say he had a medical condition and wouldn’t be able to come in until February or March 2024.
He also sent a certificate from a doctor – in Maleny, Queensland.
The company told him to apply for leave and asked if he was living in Queensland. There was no response.
That note was resent on December 8. An auto-reply came back, saying Mr Budhwani was on leave until December 11. However he had not submitted a leave request.
Mr Budhwani kept on changing his auto-reply to extend his leave without submitting requests. So a show cause notice was issued. He did not respond and was terminated on December 21.
Mr Budhwani then “falsely deallocated” three laptops issued to him.
“In this respect, the applicant’s conduct was reprehensible,” the FWC said.
Ahead of the FWC proceedings in March this year, Mr Budhwani said a “personal emergency” had been a factor in his decision to take leave.
On the first day of the proceedings, he refused to answer questions about the emergency.
On day two, he said it was an eviction notice and that he had extended his leave to move out and return to work.
However, he was then found to have changed his story several times, including to say one extension was to be with a friend who had come to visit.
He also said he had met some “good friends” at an Airbnb who “had asked him to cat-sit their house for the period of 2 March 2024 to 21 March 2024.”
Mr Budhwani’s unfair dismissal application was unsuccessful.
Commissioner Phillip Ryan went further, saying “the applicant knowingly gave false and misleading evidence ... I will refer the matter to the general manager of the commission to consider whether the applicant’s conduct should be the subject of a referral to the Australian Federal Police.”
The Daily Telegraph sought comment from Mr Budhwani.
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Originally published as Infosys worker who wouldn’t go back to its Sydney office after Covid faces referral to Australian Federal Police
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