Can your company make you return to onsite work?
More organisations are mandating return to onsite work. In some companies, like Amazon, employees are being asked to return for at least three days per week. Amazon have set out their rationale for this policy- aiming to achieve better collaboration and team work. Other organisations, such as X (formerly Twitter) have mandated return to on site work full time. Mandating more onsite presence has led to resistance amongst employees, and some have speculated that inflexible policies are acting as a hidden forcing function for workforce cuts, as employees vote with their feet and leave for roles with more flexibility.
What is the legislative framework?
Dialogue
Since December 2022, employees in the UK have had the legal right to request flexible working from day one
Employers have to review requests and discuss alternatives before rejecting an employee’s request for flexible working
Similar legislation exists in Ireland
No equivalent Federal legislation exists in the US
Disability
For employees with functional impacts of long term ill health that would be considered a disability, the Equality Act 2010 in the UK requires employers to accommodate reasonable adjustments
More flexibility of where to work - with more options for remote work may be considered a reasonable adjustment
The Americans with Disability Act confers similar duties to employers in the US
The challenge here is the term ‘reasonable adjustment’ (or reasonable accommodation in the US) the definition of which will vary from employer to employer
Caring responsibilities
In the UK, The Equality Act 2010 does protect carers from direct discrimination and harassment by association. However, it does not allow for carers to request reasonable adjustments on the basis of their association with the person they care for
A new Carer’s Leave Act expected to come into force in the UK in 2024 will allow employees to take up to five working days unpaid leave each year for caring responsibilities
The Family and Medical Leave Act in the US allows up to 12 weeks job-protected unpaid leave in a 12 month period for employees with caring responsibilities
Takeaways
While in the UK, employees have the right to request flexible working arrangements, employers do not have to agree to these requests
In the UK and the US, where remote work could be considered a reasonable adjustment/ accommodation, workers with disabilities have a legal framework to support requests for flexible working
UK/ US legislation does not generally support people requesting flexible working on the basis of caring responsibilities but established law in the US and new law in the UK mandates employers to allow for a fixed amount of unpaid carer’s leave