Tribunal rules against manager's request to work fully remote

An employer was not required to allow their employee work entirely from home.

The employee in this recent case worked for the Financial Conduct Authority and, during the pandemic, had worked entirely from home.  When pandemic restrictions eased the FCA decided on a policy of staff working two days a week in the office.

The employee objected to this working pattern and submitted a flexible working request arguing that she had continued to be a high performer whilst working from home and that attending the office was not necessary to the success of her role.

The FCA in its evidence submitted a number of factors why working remotely could have a detrimental impact on the quality and performance of the employee’s work. They included: meeting and welcoming new staff; internal training, supervision and department needs where a line manager has a visible presence; attendance at in-person events, conferences and planning meetings; attendance at weekly ‘cascade’ meetings where information is shared by senior managers and individual and team successes are acknowledged and celebrated.

The Tribunal ruled in favour of the FCA, saying that the employer had sought to genuinely consider the individual merits of the flexible working application as opposed to simply seeking to enforce the attendance policy.

The judge went on to say: “Importantly in my judgment at the moment there is no right to require an employer to permit that an employee works exclusively remotely but, as is engaged in this case, there is a right that an employer considers such a request in accordance with the statutory scheme.”

This is a case which raises a key issue in the modern workplace that is likely to be the source of continued litigation. 

Source: PeopleManagement.co.uk - Read the case summary with full judge’s comments here.

If you need support with drafting flexible working policies and training your line managers to ensure that requests are treated reasonably and fairly, get in touch with the Starford team via hello@starfordlegalhr.com