Disciplinary action for hybrid breaches?

Disciplinary action for hybrid breaches?

Vodafone and PwC have indicated that failure by their staff to comply with their hybrid working arrangements could result in disciplinary action. Is this lawful?

Office attendance requirement. lt in disciplinary action. Is this lawful?

Office attendance requirement. Many employers have hybrid working arrangements that require staff to attend the office for either two or three days per week. In Vodafone’s case, employees must be onsite for at least eight days per month. If some employees are still failing to adhere to your office attendance requirement, you might now need to look at imposing sanctions to enforce compliance. First check that your requirement is clearly set out, say, in a hybrid working policy and that it’s a mandate and not just an “expectation”. You should also have a robust monitoring process in place. We discussed monitoring entry data to check workplace attendance in yr26.

Prior warning. Whilst it’s lawful to take disciplinary action, employees should previously have been made aware of the consequences of non-compliance with their hybrid working arrangements. So, if you hadn’t already done so, warn them now that you will be treating future non-compliance as a disciplinary matter. Then, decide on your period of assessment for non-compliance, e.g. monthly or quarterly, and how far an employee must fall short to trigger disciplinary action. Your action must be proportionate.

Valid reasons for non-attendance? If an employee doesn’t meet the office attendance requirement, check whether they have a valid reason, such as a disability-related issue or childcare responsibilities.

Tip. Consider starting with an informal one-to-one discussion rather than launching into formal disciplinary action. That can often resolve the issue.

Tip. Make sure all affected employees are held to the same standards.

Tip. Failure to comply with hybrid working arrangements won’t be a gross misconduct offence. You will need to follow your warnings procedure.

Taking disciplinary action for a breach of hybrid working arrangements is lawful, provided the office days are mandatory and clear, staff know attendance is monitored and you’ve set out the consequences of non-compliance.