Work from home law/guidance

OrbitHeadache

Work from home law is expected to be ended on January 26th if not earlier for people in England. What I am confused about is whether that becomes guidance instead?

Take Wales for example, they have ended WFH being a legal requirement and instead it will be guidance.

( From Wales Gov site: "working from home remains important but moves from law to guidance")

Will employers ( specifically civil service) have the option to deviate from the guidance and get people in anyway from 26th January?

OrbitHeadache

Jillanddy said:

It's not the law in England. It's guidance. It says that office workers who can work from home should do so,  not must do so. Some people I know in the Civil Service have been doing some ( not all ) time in the office for the last months,  even though there is no reason that they have to,  other than their managers have required them to.  

Ok so if Boris says they are dropping the guidance in England that people should work from home I imagine the civil service will have to wait for updated guidance from the Government because the previous guidance last year was pre Omicron?

OrbitHeadache

In other words the updated guidance will be needed will be needed for civil service to decide how and when they bring back people to the office?

sammyjammy

OrbitHeadache said:

In other words the updated guidance will be needed will be needed for civil service to decide how and when they bring back people to the office?

No they make their own arrangements, its no different to any other workplace.  Plenty of Civil Servants are still working in the office and have throughout.  Whilst there is guidance to work from home if you can there are more of us working from home again, in my Department of DWP most people were already spending time back in the office before Christmas.

TELLIT01

If guidance ceases to say WFH wherever possible it will be up to the employer, be they public or private sector, to decide when or if they want staff to start returning to office based working.  There will be no need for further guidance to be issued as things will move back to pre-Covid status.

TBagpuss

As others have said, the WFH guidance is guidance, not law, and it 's been down to employers to determine - the guidance is specific to office workers and reflects the fact that some workers may need to continue to go in to work, whether because of the demands of the job or because of a difficult home working environment or their own needs, including physical or mental health needs.

They have continued to offer guidance about how to ensure that offices and other work spaces are kept safe for those working so extending normal health and safety considerations to include considering the additional issues caused by covid. 

If you and your co-workers are currently working from home, then I would expect your employers to be thinking about whether to bring you back into the office and if so, when and whether they bring everyone back at one, stagger it or indeed delay it. And that may be different in different departments and in different buildings, as issues such as who closely people are packed, what ventilation and heating arrangements are, how effectively people have been able to work while WFH, what local levels of infection are ans whether they are rising or falling, and other similar factors, may all be part of the assessments and decision making process for employers 

I would imagine that for a large organisation like the civil service there will be guidance from above.

If you have personal reasons for wanting / needing to continue to work from home hen you could of course still make a flexible working request, or ask your managers to take into account your personal circumstances to allow you to continue to WFH even of the majority are returning, for instance if you are particularity vulnerable 

lisyloo

Civil service does not have a blanket policy.
it may depend on the role and also the attitude of the leaders.
it cascades from above.
do you not have any meetings where this is discussed?
when I worked in such an environment it was discussed frequently - if necessary daily.

I’ve had roles where I could not wfh at all and others where I could quite easily wfh 100%.