Xe dismissed Charles Graham on December 2, 2025 after tracing his work laptop to a Singapore hotel on November 17, 2025.
Graham had previously slipped into remote work from Bali while masking plumbing woes, and had asked Xe for a year‑long Singapore stint in September 2025, a request it rejected citing licensing constraints.
On Nov 17, manager Abigail Plummer pinged the IT team, prompting a probe that revealed Graham was in Singapore, not Sydney, as he had claimed.
Graham blamed a bacterial infection in his partner’s holiday trip for the delay, but Xe rejected the evidence and cited his failure to disclose the trip’s duration.
Commissioner Alana Matheson found that Graham knowingly concealed his location, validating Xe’s dismissal grounds, yet noted procedural lapses, rendering the dismissal unfair.
The tribunal awarded him four weeks’ pay in lieu of notice, no reinstatement, and Xe has yet to announce whether it will appeal the decision.