As the first aspects of the easing of lockdown take hold with children returning to school, many employers will start to plan for a return to the office. This is likely to raise plenty of issues amongst both employers and employees. Many employees will have been working from home five days per week and will in many cases have been carrying out their role quite successfully. As remote working has now become the norm, many employers will want to know whether they are entitled to call their employees back to the office.
Employers may also be exploring how their working model will operate post lockdown. This may range from calling employees back to the office full-time or allowing workers to decide voluntarily on whether they wish to attend the office and how often. This article explores the main issues that employers are likely to face.
Can I force an employee to return to the office?
Of course, in many cases employees may be agreeable to returning to the office and many employers may need their employees to be based in the office full-time. As an alternative to this, other employers could operate a hybrid working model which combines office working with working remotely.
Potential issues are likely to emerge where the employee is reluctant to accept the employer’s proposed working arrangement post lockdown. In these circumstances, employees may submit a formal flexible working request to retain their current working arrangements. The employee may request to work from home or remotely five days per week.
In many cases, flexible working measures may have worked out quite successfully over lockdown. This may have resulted in employees operating more productively. These arguments could form the basis for the employee’s flexible working request.
Can I reject a flexible working request?
The flexible working regulations set out several potential grounds for rejecting a flexible working request. The employer should be able to demonstrate a business case for rejecting any flexible working requests. With this in mind, employers should at an early stage explain the rationale behind their post lockdown working model. For instance, employers may wish their employees to return to the office in order to foster a strong team working environment. By setting out the business case at an early stage, employers will be in a strong position to reject any flexible working requests.
Employers may also wish to consider putting forward alternative compromise to working arrangements. Another useful approach for employers would be to agree on a temporary working arrangement on a trial basis. For example, this could involve coming into the office one day per week over a three-month period. This would allow the employer the flexibility of assessing the alternative working arrangement temporarily before making a final decision on arrangements going forward.
What are the risks for employers?
Employers who fail to follow the correct process when considering a flexible working request may be liable to compensation of up to eight weeks’ pay. For this reason, employers should consider putting an effective flexible working policy in place.
Several associated claims could emerge from a flexible working request. For instance, it may be that an employee is issuing a flexible working request to accommodate childcare commitments, or for reasons connected to a serious medical condition. If employers fail to deal with these type of requests correctly then this could give rise to potential discrimination claims.
If you have any queries concerning the topics covered in this article, feel free to get in touch with David Hession.
