Company policy of 90 days remote work abroad not applying to some employees

lincroft1710

You claim to be "from another EU country", the UK left the EU in January 2020.


That aside, there is no UK legislation which forces an employer to allow an employee to work abroad.

Dakta

I get the impression the OP might have misplaced legally with contractually.

My first thought though is, and this really depends on what kind of work you do - but getting entitlement to work abroad is really not that simple. If your work involves anyones data for example it brings a whole host of complication because you might be processing it in another country.

Then there's tax complications - all mentioned before of course, but it's so difficult I'd say the ten days you get are a gift in its own right, I think for most companies even if it could be done, the hassle of it and the risk they just wouldn't have the appetite.

Again, depends on your field of work I guess but if you make a fuss the easiest and most risk-averse solution might be no abroad work at all. And if there are legal or data protection concerns then this would be easy to justify and put on people (contracts can be changed), and tbh that's the way I'd lean if given the problem to fix. 

mvk0016

Hi, I think I might not have been clear in my initial question, I have no restrictions (tax, legal or anything else) by the company itself about working from home abroad for up to 90 days, and my manager has no issue with this, as my role is fully remote and has zero responsibilities/interactions with anything important/tax-related/legal in the company.

My question is that there is one person in the company (head of my department) that has decided to verbally communicate that his team is not allowed the 90 days max SPECIFIED IN THE COMPANY OFFICIAL POLICY, but only 10 days. This is not mentioned anywhere in the company policies, and it's only been communicated verbally. 

Do I have grounds for complaint based on that? i.e. that one person is deciding my WFH abroad allocation, and is going against company policy? Without any written proof of why this "going against company policy" is happening?

Hence I was asking about discrimination, i.e. if the company policy is X and only a few people in the company are just allowed X minus 80, isn't that discrimination against these specific employees, especially since those employees are the ones with most likelihood to need to use X?

EU or non EU has no impact, the company policy is 90 days per year, and the company is US-based, so doesn't care about Brexit or whether the UK is in the EU. The company policy is the same 90 days for any country (company operates in more than 20 countries worldwide, with 3000+ employees, and only around 50 employees are not allowed the 90 days max).

Hoenir

mvk0016 said:

Do I have grounds for complaint based on that? i.e. that one person is deciding my WFH abroad allocation, and is going against company policy? Without any written proof of why this "going against company policy" is happening?

This is a discussion to be had with your employer. A decision has been reached internally . The reasons for which we can only speculate about on here. You've been directed to the appropriate company policy by your Department Head who has consulted with HR in this regard.  Ball is in your court it would appear.  

LightFlare

How the individual Departmental heads decide to apply company policy (where flexibility is allowed) is entirely up to them in their role as a senior manager.

If the policy states "may request up to 90 days" -- that does not translate as "you are entitled to 90 days"

You Dept Head has mandated 10 days, which is "up to 90 days"

Their reasoning behind this decision doesn't have to be shared with you

Grumpy_chap

mvk0016 said:

My question is that there is one person in the company (head of my department) that has decided to verbally communicate that his team is not allowed the 90 days max SPECIFIED IN THE COMPANY OFFICIAL POLICY, but only 10 days. This is not mentioned anywhere in the company policies, and it's only been communicated verbally. 

I think you need to be clear on the exactness of the company policy as at the beginning of the thread you said:

mvk0016 said:

A couple of days ago we received a company-wide message, that went out to all employees, announcing a policy change, that short-term relocations can be requested for up to 90 days per year (before there was no timeframe clearly stated in the policy). 

It makes a big difference if the company policy is that employees can WFH abroad for up to 90 days per year, or whether employees can request to WFH abroad for up to 90 days per year.

If the policy is that you can request, then that does not guarantee that the request will be agreeable to the company and granted.  Perhaps the HoD has assessed a business need for staff to be within the UK or a business risk if they are not within the UK. 
If the decision to restrict WFH abroad to 10 days in the department for a valid business need is not discrimination and is inline with the company policy - max 10 days is aligned with up to 90 days.
If there is a business need that applies for your department, it does seem better that you are all notified (as you have been) at the outset and can plan accordingly, rather than someone making some plans to WFH abroad for 15 days and then being told that they need to amend plans to only 10 days.
Just because you are not aware of the reasons behind the business need does not mean that there is no business need.

Savvy_Sue

mvk0016 said:

Hence I was asking about discrimination, i.e. if the company policy is X and only a few people in the company are just allowed X minus 80, isn't that discrimination against these specific employees, especially since those employees are the ones with most likelihood to need to use X?

EU or non EU has no impact, the company policy is 90 days per year, and the company is US-based, so doesn't care about Brexit or whether the UK is in the EU. The company policy is the same 90 days for any country (company operates in more than 20 countries worldwide, with 3000+ employees, and only around 50 employees are not allowed the 90 days max).

In the UK, discrimination is relevant to certain characteristics. So unless everyone in your dept is of one racial origin; one religion and the rest of the company is different; unless you're all disabled / women / married / lbqtx and the rest of the company is not, then your dept is not being discriminated against. 

BUT you say it's a US-based company. What employment practices are applied, US or UK?