Refusing Remote Working Requests

Requests by Employees to work from home should be handled through your Flexible Working procedure. This means that you will have a right to deny any request for Flexible or Remote Working, as long as it is for one of the eight statutory reasons (see our previous blog on predictable working requests for the list of these eight reasons).

If you rely on one of the statutory reasons to deny a Remote Working request, you will have to be able to demonstrate that the reason is applicable. For example, in the case of Wilson v Financial Conduct Authority, a request for remote work was denied for the statutory reason of "a detrimental impact on performance and the quality of output".

This was brought before the Employment Tribunal as her manager had acknowledged that when working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic Wilson had performed well, and built effective relationships with her colleagues despite not seeing them in person. Despite this, they had denied her flexible working request.

However, Financial Conduct Authority were able to prove that there were a range of factors that demonstrated Wilson's performance would be affected by working remotely. As a result, the Employment Tribunal ultimately found that their decision to deny Wilson's flexible working request was valid.

What we can learn from this case is that it is essential to demonstrate to your employees exactly why a statutory reason for denying their flexible working request is applicable.

For further HR advice or guidance in relation to the topic above, get in touch with the Lansbury HR Consultants. We are here to support businesses nationally and locally in Burton-on-Trent, Swadlincote, and Derby.