Elon Musk to end work from home – legal comment – employers ‘should tread carefully’

Rebecca Thornley-Gibson, partner at DMH Stallard, said:

“UK employers seeking to follow Elon Musk’s approach to a forced return to the office for Twitter employees, should tread carefully in how they implement similar proposals to staff.

“An employee’s place of work should be set out in their employment contract and post pandemic many employees have experienced changes to their place of work to incorporate hybrid working or in some cases a wholly flexible ‘work from anywhere’ approach.

“Even if the place of work listed in the employment contract has not changed from the traditional office location, where employees have been allowed to work from other locations on a regular basis it is likely the employment contract will have been varied by the custom and practice.

“Any proposed changes to that practice is likely to need the consent of employees.

“Where that consent is not forthcoming and the employer seeks to force the change, they will need to present a credible business rationale for the change and also consult with employees about the changes.

“Where 20 or more employees are impacted by that change there is an additional requirement for collective consultation to take place for mandatory time periods before the changes can be imposed. That requires careful planning and smart communication messages by the employer likely to take several months before the changes can be put in place.

“If the employer doesn’t approach the requirement to return to the office reasonably and in accordance with statutory requirements, there are a multitude of claims an employee could bring including breach of contract and unfair dismissal.”