A worker who claims to have been unfairly dismissed could be reported to the AFP for allegedly giving misleading testimony when taking legal action against his boss.
Imran Karim Budhwani claimed he was unfairly dismissed by IT multinational Infosys after refusing to return to the office following the Covid pandemic.
Mr Budhwani took the matter to the Fair Work Commission in March before his unfair dismissal claim was rejected.
The FWC released its decision this week, with Commissioner Phillip Ryan saying the applicant “deliberately submitted false and misleading evidence.”
“I will refer the matter to the commission’s director-general for consideration of whether the applicant’s conduct should be the subject of a referral to the Australian Federal Police,” he said.
Mr Budhwani was hired to look after computers, printers and scanners at Infosys’ North Sydney headquarters in 2018.
When the Covid pandemic hit, the company required everyone working in the office to be vaccinated.
FWC found that Mr Budhwani “deliberately lied to (Infosys) by claiming to be vaccinated against Covid so that he could continue to attend the office”.
Imran Karim Budhwani (pictured) claimed he had been unfairly dismissed by IT multinational Infosys, but the Fair Work Commission ruled against him.
During questioning, Mr Budhwani said he was “only caught lying about his vaccination status when he was asked to show his vaccination certificate”.
Despite his dishonesty, the company allowed him to work from home temporarily, although this meant there were some IT support tasks he could not carry out.
Her manager, Nimshy Osman, had to pick up the Sydney office work that Budhwani couldn’t do remotely and asked the HR department in the second half of 2022 if she could return to the office.
However, the Covid vaccination rule was still in effect, so Budhwani was not allowed to work from the office.
But more than a year later, on Nov. 2, 2023, Osman was told the policy had been relaxed and unvaccinated employees could return to the office.
The next day, Mr. Osman called Mr. Budhwani and told him to come back to the office the following week.
Mr Budhwani gave several reasons around health conditions and living conditions that he said would prevent him from returning to the office until February or March 2024.
She was told she had to present a medical certificate in order to continue working remotely.
The medical certificate he provided was from a doctor in Maleny, Queensland, which was the first indication Infosys had that Mr Budhwani did not live in New South Wales.
On November 24, the company told him to return to the Sydney office from December 11 or provide evidence of why he could not do so.
When the Covid pandemic hit, Infosys (pictured) required everyone working in the office to be vaccinated.
Mr Budhwani emailed to say he had a medical condition and again said he would not be able to come until February or March.
When the company told him to apply for a licence and asked if he lived in Queensland, he did not respond.
When a follow-up email was sent on December 8, an automatic response appeared saying that Mr Budhwani was on leave until December 11, but that he had not booked any leave.
He then continued to change his auto-reply to extend the leave he said he had taken, without having requested any time off.
He continued to be unresponsive and the company fired him on December 21.
Mr Budhwani then “falsely de-allocated” three laptops that had been issued to him, the FWC heard.
“In this respect, the applicant’s conduct was reprehensible,” the commission said.
Before the FWC proceedings last March, Mr Budhwani said a “personal emergency” had been part of his decision to take leave, but on the first day of the hearing, he refused to answer questions about what that was.
On the second day, he said it was an eviction notice and that he had extended his license to move and return to work.
But then she discovered that he had changed his story several times, even saying that one of his periods of leave was to spend time with a friend who had come to visit.
Mr Budhwani also said he had met some “good friends” at an Airbnb who “had asked him to look after their house for the period of 2 March 2024 to 21 March 2024”.
His application for unfair dismissal was unsuccessful.
