From human rights claims to tax traps, both return-to-office and remote models create legal exposure

12 May 2025

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For Canadian employers, the pandemic-era improvisation around remote work is over. Now comes the hard part: defining permanent policies that either bring employees back to the office – fully or in part – or allow them to stay remote.

Return-to-office mandates carry a host of legal challenges, from accommodation requests and human rights obligations to the risk of constructive dismissal. For employers embracing a fully remote workforce, especially across provincial or international borders, the compliance risks become even more complex.

The legal weight of return-to-office policies

In both full-time office models and hybrid arrangements with attendance requirements, employers must navigate a tangle of legal obligations. “Employers need to really think long and hard about, how is that really necessary for those who are resistant to returning to the office?” says David Whitten, founding partner at Whitten & Lublin in Toronto. “Because just having some blanket return-to-work policy for the sake of it can have devastating impacts on ... efficiency, morale, and productivity.”

Whether employees are being asked to come in two days or five, legal risk persists. Constructive dismissal is one of the most significant threats when returning employees to the office after prolonged remote work.

Jeffrey Mitchell, a labour and employment lawyer at Borden Ladner...

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