According to the Daily Mail, office staff could be given a ‘default’ right to work from home under post-pandemic plans from ministers. The proposals would change the law to make it impossible for employers to insist on staff attending the workplace unless they can show it is essential.
The Government will consult on the plan – part of a drive to promote flexible working – over the summer, ahead of possible legislation later this year.
A Whitehall source said: “We are looking at introducing a default right to flexible working. That would cover things like reasonable requests by parents to start late so they can drop their kids at childcare. But in the case of office workers in particular it would also cover working from home – that would be the default right unless the employer could show good reason why someone should not.”
It is too early to predict whether the proposed default right to work from home will come to fruition, however most businesses are planning their post-pandemic ‘normal’ around hybrid working where employees would work from home for 1 to 3 days per week anyway.
