‘Employers have the upper hand’: Employment lawyer on hybrid work model

Many specialists and analysts believe the workforce has fundamentally changed as a result of COVID-19. Employees who had begun to work remotely may never wish to return to the workplace. How will employers navigate this shift? Do they have to accommodate these requests?

Alex Lucifero, an Ottawa employment lawyer and managing partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP spoke to Global News on the employment dilemma.

Lucifero explains that employers do have the upper hand with that issue and can require their workers to return their office space. “It is ultimately, for the most part, the employer’s decision,” says Lucifero.

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• Employee rights in a hybrid work model
• An employer’s duty to accommodate

“For those employees who have been working from home temporarily as a result of COVID, it’s been made clear to them that it is a temporary measure … the employer in those cases does have the right to return employees back to the office.”