Work From Home Will Be A Legal Right In This Country: Hard For Employers To Deny WFH Request Now!

The European country Netherlands could soon become the first country in the world to establish work from home as a legal right. 

Over two years after the Covid-19 pandemic forced offices to shift to a work from home followed by a work from anywhere module, companies are now starting to direct employees back to offices, given the ease in restrictions from earlier.

At such a time, the European nation is very close to making it a legal right for its citizens to work from home.

Here’s everything you need to know on this development.

Netherlands Could Institute WFH As a Legal Right

The Dutch Parliament’s lower house has passed a legislation to set work from home as a legal right for employees in the country and has now headed to the Senate for final approval on this rule.

At present, if an employee in the Netherlands requests for work from home to their employer, the latter can deny such request(s) without giving any reason to support their decision.

If the new work from home law is instituted, employers will have to consider all such requests and give adequate reasons to support their parts if they refuse these requests.

“It allows them to find a better work-life balance and reduce time spent on commuting,” said Senna Maatoug of the GroenLinks party.

The new bill is an amendment to the Netherland’s Flexible Working Act of 2015, which allows workers to request changes in their working hours, schedule and even place of work, stated a WSJ report.

However, employers of the Netherlands wouldn’t be too devastated or experience significant changes to their work models if the law is passed.

This is because almost 14% of the Dutch workforce already operated/worked remotely two years before the pandemic, as per Eurostat.

Tesla Forces Employees 40 Hr/Week in Office

The Netherlands is working towards setting the work from home practice as a legal right at a time when most companies in the US are finding it hard to call back employees to offices now that the pandemic is subsidizing.

While some companies are trying to entice white collars into returning to office spaces by upping their office perks, companies like Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX are adopting a harder stance.

Musk’s companies are forcing their employees to spend at least 40 hours a week in company offices, which if not abided ‘should pretend to work somewhere else,” said Musk in an email sent to employees.