Following civil servants from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities protesting a return to office mandate, Employment Partner Jo Mackie comments on the laws surrounding these mandates and flexible working.
Jo’s comments were published in People Management, 30 June 2025.
“First, understand the law. There is no carte blanche entitlement to working from home – the only rights are enabled by contractual agreements.”
Jo noted that employees often assume a right to remote work simply because the practice has become routine: “They don’t always understand the difference and think just because they’ve been able to do so until now means they are entitled to continue to do so. It does not mean that.”
“If HR identifies genuine cases where employees need flexibility they must encourage employees to make the formal application for flexible working as soon as possible. Employers are more likely to think positively on flexible working requests when clear and genuine reasons are set out.”
