If you CAN work from home, can employer refuse?

[GabyAby84]

At the start of the pandemic, DH’s company made the decision to send staff home to work.
He was on annual leave that week but his computer was brought home and he was set up to work remotely the following week.

The following week the company furloughed all staff.

He has an email from work at the beginning of the week saying he’s still furlough.

He’s since spoken to a colleague (works in a separate department that cannot work from home) who had told him he may be getting called to return to work next week.

At this point it’s speculation and nothing official, but his colleague has made him believe his return will be office based.

The government website clearly states to work from home unless you can’t.

My husband can as it’s already set up for him to do so.

Where would he stand with this? Could his employer over ride the government advice and make him return to the office?

I think they can if they find some flimsy excuse of why it's better for him to be in the office but they'll need to make the work place safe so distancing is possible. They are considering making working from home a legal right so employers can't refuse if the job can be done from home. Not sure when / if this will come in.

I think they have already done this, so the office will be set up for social distancing.
It’s just we don’t see any reason why he must be in the office, especially when he is already setup to work from home.

I’m in the high risk category having asthma and an autoimmune condition, so we were both home working would be allowed.

Its very difficult.

Because we can work from home. Its not working so well for some teams. At a time we are building the business back up, we need these people to be working effectively. But them being out isnt working.

So technically they can work from home. But they are returning to the office. But will separated. Our office is open plan which has 4 entrance/exits and 4 toilets. They have all been allocated one door to use and one toilet. But they need to be able to actually speak to each other. At home they spent all day on a group WhatsApp call so they could ask questions about each others work. It wasn't working for them. I personally, think its down to their personality types. Most teams saw wfh as a challenge to work out the best way to work and change things up. This team do have a history of making life more difficult for themselves.

On the other hand, I do think there needs to be something in place. My company didn't want to send us home when Boris said 'if you can work from home, work from home'. It was apparently not going to work for us. To difficult to set up. My team, in particular, were told we needed to be in the office because we deal with all the departments. But no explanation as to why we needed to be in to do it.

The owners were convinced to get more laptops, incase of lockdown. When lockdown came, I had my team packed up, sent home and set up in two hours. IT provided fantastic support to the whole business. The owners now admit they were wrong and were so impressed with how well its working. We have now been told to expect to be home until at least Christmas.

But alot of employers don't like wfh and so will want everyone in. But I really think they have to be able to justify it. There needs to be something in place to make employers do it.

Some people at ours asked to remain on furlough because their interne was great and they couldn't afford an upgrade. The company are paying for the upgrade, etc. They are now doing what they can to get people working, but at home.

For your situation op, I wouldn't worry about what one colleague says. We have had lots of employees telling people whats going on, lots of which is wrong.

If your high risk, are you shielding?

@Disneylover4321 I’m not shielding as I’m not on the official shielding list.
But I am isolating.