An Infosys employee has claimed he was unfairly fired and filed a lawsuit against his boss. He could now be referred to the federal police

A worker who claims he was unfairly dismissed could be referred to the AFP for allegedly providing misleading evidence in a legal action against his boss.

Imran Karim Budhwani has claimed he was unfairly fired by IT multinational Infosys after he refused 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 dismissed.

The FWC released its decision this week, with Commissioner Phillip Ryan saying the applicant had “knowingly provided false and misleading evidence.”

“I will refer the matter to the commission’s chief executive to determine whether the applicant’s conduct should be reported to the Australian Federal Police,” he said.

Mr Budhwani was hired to look after computers, printers and scanners at Infosys’ headquarters in North Sydney in 2018.

When the Covid pandemic hit, the company required everyone working in the office to be vaccinated.

The FWC found that Mr Budhwani “deliberately lied to (Infosys) that he was vaccinated against Covid so that he could continue to attend the office”.

During cross-examination, Mr Budhwani said he “was only caught lying about his vaccination status when he was asked to produce his vaccination certificate”.

Despite his dishonesty, the company allowed him to work from home temporarily, even though it meant he could not perform certain IT support tasks.

His manager, Nimshy Osman, had to do the Sydney office work that Mr Budhwani could not do remotely, and asked the HR department in the second half of 2022 if he could return to the office.

However, the Covid vaccination rule was still in force, so Mr Budhwani was not allowed to work from the office.

But more than a year later, on November 2, 2023, Mr. Osman was informed that 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 various reasons regarding his health and living conditions which he said would prevent him from returning to office before February or March 2024.

He was told he needed to provide a medical certificate to be allowed to continue working remotely.

The medical certificate he provided was from a doctor in Maleny, Queensland, which was the first indication Infosys had received that Mr Budhwani did not live in New South Wales.

On November 24, the company asked him to return to the Sydney office from December 11 or provide evidence as to why he could not do so.

Mr Budhwani emailed to say he had a health problem and reiterated that he would not be able to come until February or March.

When the company asked him to apply for leave and if he lived in Queensland, he did not respond.

A follow-up email was then sent on December 8, with an automatic reply stating 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 was taking, without having requested leave.

He continued to not respond and the company fired him on December 21.

Mr Budhwani then “falsely decommissioned” three laptops that had been provided to him, the FWC was told.

“In this regard, the applicant’s conduct was reprehensible,” the commission said.

Before the FWC proceedings in March, Mr Budhwani had said a “personal emergency” had prompted his decision to take leave, but on the first day of the hearing he refused to answer questions about what that emergency was.

On the second day he said it was an eviction notice and he had extended his leave to move out and return to work.

But he later changed his story several times, including saying that one period of leave had been spent spending time with a friend who had come to visit him.

Mr Budhwani also said he had met “good friends” at an Airbnb who “asked him to look after their cat at their home for the period of 2 to 21 March 2024”.

His claim for unfair dismissal was unsuccessful.

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