With the COVID Omicron-surge in the rear-view mirror, employers across Massachusetts are calling the workforce back into the office. This push to return to the office has led many employees to question their options to work at their home offices indefinitely. So how can you asses your right to continue working from home?

For most, the issue of continuing remote work is better framed as two separate but related legal questions: (1) is the employer’s request to return to the office being executed in a lawful manner; and (2) does the employee have a personal right to work remotely.

IS THE EMPLOYER’S REQUEST TO RETURN TO THE OFFICE UNLAWFUL?

Where many employees miss the mark is by arguing the merits of the employer’s decision. Employers are permitted to make their own business decisions- good or bad – as courts have consistently held. Evidence that an employee is equally or more productive working from home does not—standalone—make the employer’s directive to return to the office unlawful.

This evidence may, however, support the conclusion that the employer’s decision was made based on an unlawful motive, such as unlawful discrimination or retaliation. Other circumstantial evidence of an unlawful motive may include disparate treatment of similarly situated employees. An employers that selectively calls back the workforce may raise questions of unlawfully disparate treatment.

An employee who can muster circumstantial evidence that the employer’s order to return to the office...

Read Full Story: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/i-don-t-want-to-go-to-back-to-office-you...