On 31 March 2022, a report of the Social Economic Council (SER) was published in which the position of employees who prefer to (partially) work from home is fortified. Politicians are optimistic about this new piece of advice. In NRC, Ruben Houweling, Professor of Labour Law at Erasmus School of Law, explains why this report strengthens the position of employees who work from home.
The pandemic forced everyone to work from home. Now that the crisis seems to be under control, the question arises whether employees are obliged to work in the office or whether working (partially) from home will be a remaining option. Not all employers support working from home. This new advice could offer a solution for those working from home if they prefer to keep doing so.
The law states that employees can request to change their working location, but an employer is only obliged to consider such a request. The new SER advice says that these requests must be approved when the reasons for working from home are reasonable and fair. According to Houweling, this advice is a positive development for employees who want to keep working from home: “The baseline is that the employer has to cooperate or explain why working from home is not possible.”
Eventually, it is up to judges to explain when a denial of a request to work from home and the supportive arguments conflict with reasonability and fairness. “Judges are more than able to rule on the adequacy of these arguments”, says Houweling.
Employers will most likely name social cohesion amongst colleagues as a reason to deny employees the chance to work from home. Still, according to Houweling, employers cannot hide behind cohesion: “If they do so, the judge will ask some more questions: is it really necessary for this cohesion that an employee is in the office for five days? Why are two days not sufficient?”
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Click here for the entire article of NRC (in Dutch).