How to respond where an employee is reluctant to return to the workplace

Author: Darren Newman

Summary

Click on any of the hyperlinks to go to more detailed guidance below.

• Be aware of current government guidance in the relevant part of the UK.
• Understand the contractual position on where employees can be required to work.
• Take all necessary steps to make the workplace safe.
• Listen to employees' individual concerns about returning to the workplace and consider how they can be addressed.
• Consider reasonable adjustments where an employee is clinically vulnerable from coronavirus.
• Where a pregnant employee is anxious about returning, consider whether it is genuinely necessary for them to do so.
• Where an employee requests to work from home because of childcare responsibilities, ensure that any refusal is objectively justifiable.
• Take into account how effectively employees have been performing while working from home.
• If the employee makes a flexible working request, deal with this in a reasonable manner and be aware that there are limited grounds for refusing a request.
• Consider hybrid working if this has not been done already.
• Consider redeploying an employee who is unable to return to work but who cannot effectively work at home.
• Where you have considered the employee's situation and still believe that it is right to ask them to return to the workplace, inform them that a failure to return could result in disciplinary action.
• Take disciplinary action where appropriate.