Forced to return to office

acemdrgn

Hi.
I started a job with a company as a remote worker, my contract states my home is my normal place of work.
The company have now said anyone within 50 miles of an office is expected in the office. I live 40 miles away from the London office.
The cost of this in train fares alone would be over £5,000 per year.
Can they do this?
If I refused could I be fired or would they need to offer redundancy?
Thanks.

p00hsticks

How long have you worked for them ?

Savvy_Sue

p00hsticks said:

How long have you worked for them ?

And are you in a union? What do they say?

Annisele

How long have you worked there? If it's less than two years, they could just fire you; they wouldn't need to offer redundancy.

However, I suspect there's some flexibility here. Your employer isn't saying that being in the office is necessary to do the work (if it was taking that view, it would take that view even if you lived 51 miles away). 

If it's an edict from on high, there might be an option to just ignore it for a bit. If your direct manager is pushing it, that's a different situation.

Marcon

acemdrgn said:

Hi.
I started a job with a company as a remote worker, my contract states my home is my normal place of work.
The company have now said anyone within 50 miles of an office is expected in the office. I live 40 miles away from the London office.
The cost of this in train fares alone would be over £5,000 per year.
Can they do this?
If I refused could I be fired or would they need to offer redundancy?
Thanks.

If this is a contractual change, then they'd need to (or at least should!) follow the proper consultation procedure.

If there's a business need for this decision then yes, they could fire you if you don't agree. Redundancy doesn't come into it since that only occurs when the role no longer exists, or is significantly diminished - neither of which is the case here from what you've said.

DullGreyGuy

acemdrgn said:

Hi.
I started a job with a company as a remote worker, my contract states my home is my normal place of work.
The company have now said anyone within 50 miles of an office is expected in the office. I live 40 miles away from the London office.
The cost of this in train fares alone would be over £5,000 per year.
Can they do this?
If I refused could I be fired or would they need to offer redundancy?
Thanks.

Expected in the office every single day or just X days a week? Normal place of work is one thing but are there other clauses about travelling to other places?

As others have said, if you have less than 2 years service they can remove you without reason.

jlfrs01

This is work a read in the event you want to continue to work from home and are confident enough to have it out with your employer shoudl they become dictatorial: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-to-benefit-from-new-flexible-working-measures

Undervalued

acemdrgn said:

Hi.
I started a job with a company as a remote worker, my contract states my home is my normal place of work.
The company have now said anyone within 50 miles of an office is expected in the office. I live 40 miles away from the London office.
The cost of this in train fares alone would be over £5,000 per year.
Can they do this?
If I refused could I be fired or would they need to offer redundancy?
Thanks.

It may do but it is relatively easy (and not uncommon) for a company to change an employee's normal place of work if there are sound business reasons for doing so.

As other have said, if you have less than two years service they could simply terminate your employment without even offering a reason.

If you have worked for more than two years you might have a claim if they don't have sound business reasons but no tribunal can stop them sacking you. All they can do is award some compensation, which is generally far less that most people seem to expect.

TBagpuss

You are unlikely to be redundant - they still need someone to fill the role. The issue is that they are seeking to change the terms of your contract.

In the first instance, it may be best to raise with your manager in the first instance, and clarify that your contract explicitly has your home as your place of work, so they are seeking to make a significant change, and that you wish to continue to work on the basis of your contract terms. 

If they aren't willing to agree with that then you can try to negotiate - perhaps for hybrid work so you don't have to go in every day, a salary increase to cover at least some of the additional costs, and/of flexible working to try to avoid peak periods 

acemdrgn

Hi.
Thank You for all the replies.

I have been with the company less than 2 years, although I expect this will drag out until April at least at which point I will hit 2 years (my old company was actually taken over and my employment contract transferred which I assume counts towards service length).

I'm not part of any union.

I'm only expected in 2 days a week, which I would not have issue with if not for the cost (which is almost the same as full time as cannot get a season ticket for just 2 days a week).

My manager is sympathetic but has to tow the company line.

acemdrgn

I should add I joined this company under a TUPE agreement, which means I think my service to prior employer also would count towards the 2 year term.