The push and pull continues between management and staff about returning to the office. And in some cases it\u2019s becoming more acrimonious. <\/p>\n
But if push comes to shove \u2014 specifically, a company shove back to the office \u2014 workers likely do not have many ways to challenge the directive in court, employment lawyers say.<\/p>\n
\n
\u201cWith few exceptions, the employer has every right to call people back to the office,\u201d said Mark Hanna, a partner at Murphy Anderson, a Washington D.C.-based law firm representing workers.<\/p>\n
Those exceptions include a contract that stipulates a specific work arrangement like remote work, he said. Two other exceptions include a union\u2019s collective bargaining agreement that allows for remote work and an individual\u2019s arrangement for remote work due to a disability, Hanna noted.<\/p>\n
The issue is only going to gain importance in the months ahead, studies show. Seven in ten employers told the employer-side law firm Littler Mendelson that hybrid work best described their staff\u2019s working arrangements. But nearly half of the companies allowing some at-home work said they would be requiring more in-office work in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the May report.<\/p>\n
As someone who represents unions in the bargaining process, the amount of remote work \u201cis an increasingly common point of contention between workers and management,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
More companies are insisting on the in-person show up. Farmers Group is facing worker discontent, according to the Wall Street Journal. That\u2019s after the insurer switched from a remote-work policy for many to a requirement for in-office attendance three days a week. Farmers did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Google
\n GOOG,
\n +0.92%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n GOOGL,
\n +0.92%<\/bg-quote>
\n says it will be cracking down to ensure staffers are abiding by the the three-day office work policy. Management is also asking people with approved remote-work roles to reconsider.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, hundreds of workers at Amazon
\n AMZN,
\n +0.26%<\/bg-quote>
\n staged a lunchtime walkout late last month to protest policies, including a three-day in-office work requirement.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re always listening and will continue to do so, but we\u2019re happy with how the first month of having more people back in the office has been,\u201d said Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser. \u201cThere\u2019s more energy, collaboration, and connections happening, and we\u2019ve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices,\u201d he said. But the company also acknowledged it would take adjusting to more time back in the office. <\/p>\n
Remote and hybrid work first gained widespread traction for white-collar jobs during the pandemic. Now that COVID-19 has receded as a public-health crisis, the question is how much remote and hybrid work recedes with it.<\/p>\n
\u2018Uphill battle\u2019<\/h2>\n
A winning legal fight over a return to the office would be an \u201cuphill battle\u201d but it\u2019s not impossible, said Kamran Shahabi, a partner at Valiant Law.<\/p>\n
For workers to win a case about empty promises of remote work, they would have to show \u201cjustifiable reliance\u201d on what their company was telling them, said Shahabi, who represents management and staffers in employment-law disputes.<\/p>\n
The person would have to show they were economically hurt, believing what their employer told them \u2014 like taking a pay cut to work remotely from a place where the cost of living was cheaper.<\/p>\n
Employers could fight back by arguing the change in workplace policies had to do with unforeseen changes in the business environment, he said. A successful case would have to show that company managers knew or should have known that work policies were about to change, Shahabi said.<\/p>\n
What if an employee or employees believed the plan to call workers back to the office was unjustified? \u201cIf a plaintiff\u2019s attorney got facts, testimony and evidence that this was planned weeks ahead of time and you still went ahead, the implication is you didn\u2019t care and you wanted the employee at any cost. And there\u2019s a sense of unfairness to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Juries might even relate to the worker in a way they couldn\u2019t have before the pandemic, he added.<\/p>\n
Suppose a worker doesn\u2019t have a contract, and many people do not work with contracts, Hanna noted. If the person has an offer letter \u201cwith definitive remote-work terms,\u201d and if that offer letter sets out a fixed length of employment, Hanna said it could be the basis of a successful case.<\/p>\n
In that circumstance, \u201ca court could very well find that an employer broke the contract by mandating in-office work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Others are not convinced. It would be a \u201cstretch\u201d to press a case from an offer letter, said Patricia Pryor of Jackson Lewis, a national firm representing employers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOftentimes, the offer letter will have language that makes it clear it\u2019s not a contract,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt will\u201d employment, instead of contract worker, is the reality for most workers in America, said Pryor, office managing principal of several firm offices in Ohio and Kentucky. That means employers can change the terms of employment at will \u2014 and conversely it also means workers can leave their job at will, she said.<\/p>\n
Pryor said she often talks with employer clients about how to dial up the return to office in a job market that\u2019s still tight. \u201cThey are starting to recognize what\u2019s missing. It\u2019s that collegiality, that creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clearest way to fight back against a company work policy would be looking for a new job, Pryor said. \u201cThat\u2019s the biggest bargaining power any employee has, which is to get another job,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
The recent jobs report showed the economy adding 339,000 jobs last month.<\/p>\n
The job market is still favorable for people who are looking, Paul McDonald, senior executive director for Robert Half International
\n RHI,
\n +0.12%<\/bg-quote>,<\/span>
\n the staffing and recruiting company. Flexibility and remote work are still job demands, he noted.<\/p>\nLeaving for another job, however, might not pay the way it did recently. Compared to a year ago, data shows the wage growth for job switchers is slowing. A job switcher\u2019s hourly wages grew by 6.9% year over year in April compared to the 5.7% for those who stayed at their job, according to the\u00a0Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That compares to .5% for job switchers in July 2022 and 5.9% for job stayers.<\/p>\n
The bottom line: If more companies want their people in the office more often, remote work loses its force as a bargaining chip, Prior said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The push and pull continues between management and staff about returning to the office. And in some cases it\u2019s becoming more acrimonious. But if push comes to shove \u2014 specifically, a company shove back to the office \u2014 workers likely do not have many ways to challenge the directive in court, employment lawyers say. \u201cWith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-20556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\n
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