Judge backs SBS after producer with chronic conditions seeks full-time WFH
SBS lawfully fired a long‑serving radio producer who wanted to work from home indefinitely, after a judge ruled studio attendance was essential to her job.
In a 23 December 2025 decision, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia dismissed claims by former SBS Greek program producer Efstathia Papaemanouil that the broadcaster had unlawfully discriminated against her and taken adverse action when it refused permanent work-from-home arrangements and later terminated her employment.
Papaemanouil started with SBS in June 2012 and, before the pandemic, worked as Producer – Greek Language Program in the Audio & Language Content division. The role, the court noted, involved presenting audio content on air, including live interviews and news, and operating studio equipment at SBS’s Melbourne studios in Federation Square.
Like many Victorian staff, she shifted to full-time remote work from around March 2020 under temporary COVID-19 measures. She completed SBS’s “Temporary Working from Home Checklist,” and from April 2020 to January 2023 worked from home producing three news bulletins a day, plus interviews, current affairs content and settlement guides.
The turning point came in March 2022, when SBS announced that news segments for the Greek program would be produced and presented live in the studio from April. On 15 March 2022, Papaemanouil emailed management requesting to continue working from home “indefinitely,” citing chronic autoimmune disease, long-standing Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain and mobility issues linked to an earlier shoulder injury. Her doctors later supplied letters supporting continued work from home.
On 29 March 2022, SBS declined the request for permanent remote work, but granted a further 12 weeks of full work-from-home from 18 April 2022, and foreshadowed a possible independent medical assessment. The company then moved to a hybrid model, confirming in August 2022 that her role was classified as hybrid, requiring both home and in-office work, particularly for live broadcasts.
Matters escalated after late 2022, when she injured her knee while handling baggage on an aircraft during a trip to Greece, and, shortly after returning, was hospitalised with pneumonia and a pulmonary embolism. In December 2022, SBS arranged an independent medical examination with occupational physician Dr James Crompton, which took place on 9 January 2023.
In his 23 January 2023 report, Dr Crompton diagnosed several conditions and considered her medical state likely to remain indefinitely without major intervention. He accepted she could work from home, but highlighted significant risks around travel, mobility and safety, and observed that if home-based work were agreed, it would logically need to be on an indefinite basis. He also expressed concerns, in discussions with SBS’s Head of Health and Wellbeing, about falls risk at home.
SBS sent a summary of the report to Papaemanouil and her GP and told her in February 2023 that it could not continue the work-from-home arrangement and was unable to provide a safe workplace for her to perform the inherent requirements of the role. Over 2023 and early 2024, the company repeatedly sought updated information from her GP and specialists, while exploring whether she could safely return at least one day a week for live broadcasts and work from home on other days.
Medical reports from her GP dated 22 November 2023, 3 February 2024 and 22 March 2024 stated that she was awaiting or likely to need knee surgery, described her conditions as multiple and chronic with no meaningful long-term prognosis available, and, by March 2024, recorded that she was temporarily unable to work at the office and could only safely work from home.
On 11 March 2024, after outlining its preliminary view that she could no longer perform the inherent requirements of the Producer/Broadcaster role and inviting further material by 25 March, SBS indicated it would make a decision about termination based on the information it had if nothing more was provided. On 10 April 2024, it terminated her employment, paying five weeks’ pay in lieu of notice.
Papaemanouil, who filed her application on 25 July 2024 and represented herself at a liability hearing from 8 to 12 December 2025, alleged SBS had punished her for exercising workplace rights, discriminated against her because of disability, coerced and misled her, and underpaid entitlements.
Judge Fary rejected every claim. The court held she had no general right to work from home indefinitely, only a right to request flexible work, which SBS had considered and refused on operational and safety grounds. Crucially for HR, the court accepted SBS’s evidence that attending the Federation Square studios for live broadcasting and using studio equipment were inherent requirements of the job, and that her employment ended because she could no longer meet those requirements, at the time or in the foreseeable future.
Allegations of coercion, undue influence, misrepresentation and underpayment were dismissed, and the application was thrown out. Any question of costs will be decided on written submissions due in February and March 2026.
For HR, the key lesson is to clearly define and document a role’s inherent requirements, then rigorously align flexible work and medical adjustments to those requirements.
