Tech troubles | Worker sacked for not clocking in blamed errors on HR app

A woman who claimed that problems with an HR app were responsible for her losing her job has had her sacking upheld by an employment tribunal.

Anarieta Virisilla was working as a cleaner for Mermaid Cleaning between May 2020 and October 2021, and was required to clock in and out of work using the HumanForce app on her smartphone. However, she consistently failed to clock her hours on the app, and after seven months of this, the company let her go.

Ms Virisilla argued at the tribunal in Melbourne, Australia that she was not properly trained in using the app, and that it often failed. She claimed that, when she received the app error message, she would send a screenshot to her boss, and later confirm the hours she worked. She said that when she claimed about this to HR, she received little or no support. She also claimed she was unfairly singled out, as many other company employees did not use the app.

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However, the tribunal found that Ms Virisilla had received training on how to use the app when she started the job, and that the training was sufficient for her to understand it. Fair Work Commission Deputy President Alan Colman pointed out that she’d used the app successfully when she first started the job, but that she failed to use it after about two-thirds of her rostered shifts, news.co.au reports.