Employment Lawyer on Twitter’s new work from home policy

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has led to rounds of layoffs as well as new policy changes. Most recently, Musk announced that he plans to remove the company’s work-from-anywhere policy and requires all staff to work from the office full-time. What does this recent change say about the flexibility of the workforce? Are more workplaces shifting back to pre-pandemic work models?

Mackenzie Irwin, a Toronto employment lawyer and Associate at Samfiru Tumarkin spoke to CTV News and tells Rhythm Sachdeva that employers should be wary of making big changes.

“Employers are absolutely risking a floodgate of wrongful dismissal claims for severance when they make fundamental changes to (policy) for their employees,” says Irwin.

Irwin goes on to explain that employers must be cognisant of how they have advertised for new jobs. “If a job is advertised as a remote position and if remote work is embedded in an employee’s contract or as a company policy, then an argument can be made that work-from-home counts as an agreed-upon term of employment.” Irwin states.

Employers could face further legal action from their employees, Irwin cautions. “In those cases, employees fired for not returning to offices or who quit due to the change in policy can sue for constructive dismissal.”