The pandemic has changed the workplace in ways few of us could have imagined. Even if many of the building blocks of the current system were already in place the degree and pace of change is a big challenge.
Employers are feeling the pressure from employees who are keen to maintain the level of flexibility they enjoyed during the pandemic and there are also demands for employers to be more socially responsible. Many employers already have or are intending to respond to such demands.
In tandem, employers’ legal obligations are increasing. Duties to their employees are expanding.
Although many employees are continuing to work remotely and lots of organisations have hybrid or pilot remote-working policies in place, the legislation underpinning such arrangements has yet to be enacted.
The draft legislation, namely the Right to Request Remote Working Bill, sets out how requests to work remotely should be dealt with. An employer may refuse a request where they are of the view that the proposed request is not suitable on business grounds, for example, the nature of the work is not suitable for remote working or there is a potential negative impact on quality of business product or service.
This draft legislation requires all employers to have a remote working policy and creates a criminal penalty for not alerting employees to this policy on an annual basis, even in situations where remote working is not feasible, such as retail or restaurants.
It remains to be seen if changes...
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