Featured Image Credit: Suzie Cheikho / Sunrise
Topics: News, Australia, World News
Kit Roberts
A woman who was sacked after she was found 'not typing enough' while working from home has claimed that she was 'targeted'.
Suzie Cheikho had worked for Insurance Australia Group (IAG) for 18 years, and had been on an improvement plan after concerns were raised about her performance.
This included missing meetings and deadlines, and the company even claiming they were fined by a regulator according to the Fair Work Commission (FWC).
During the review, her former employer also monitored her device for 49 days to see how many keystrokes she had been making while working from home.
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She was later fired from her job after the amount was deemed to be not sufficient enough.
Cheikho has now appeared on Australian breakfast show Sunrise to give her side of the story, and has accused her former employer of failing to meet their 'duty of care' towards her as an employee.
She said: "I held a job for 18 years - I was a hard worker and I know I was a loyal worker. I was going through some personal and mental health issues.
"I was reprimanded for my work, instead of my company meeting their duty of care and helping me.
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“I was basically targeted because of my mental health and the things that I was going through.
“And I feel like it was a premeditated attack to actually get me out of the company.”
Responding to the claim that the company had received a fine after Cheikho failed to reach a deadline, she says it was the first time she had made a mistake while working there.
“Everybody makes mistakes ... I made my first mistake and I missed a deadline in lodging a document on time,” she said.
“And I got a warning for it. That was my first ever.”
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She claims that she was monitored from October to December but wasn't given the data until January.
“So everybody’s going around talking about how I was given so much time. It wasn’t that I was given time - I was on my performance review, whilst they were undergoing this cyber review.” she said.
She claimed that she 'wasn't aware' that her keystrokes were being monitored.
Cheikho also spoke against the claims made in the inquiry which said she was 'uncontactable'.
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“So with the part where I was uncontactable, I was actually I had a medical emergency,” she said.
“At that time, I unfortunately was unable to start on my roster time. As soon as I was home from the hospital, I actually contacted my manager. Another time was another medical issue.
“I’m a woman who lives on my own. I don’t have I don’t have a spousal and next of kin, so nobody could contact my work.
“It wasn’t that I was uncontactable.”
LADbible has reached out to IAG for comment.
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The FWC rejected an application for an unfair dismissal by Cheikho, with Deputy President Thomas Roberts saying that she was dismissed for a 'valid reason of misconduct'.
"I have little doubt that the factors underlying the applicant’s disconnection from work were serious and real.” he said.
And earlier this week, Cheikho told the Daily Mail that 'nobody is going to hire me' now that her story has gone viral.