Employers in the United Kingdom have tools at their disposal to enforce compliance with hybrid working and return-to-office polices, McGuireWoods London office managing partner Daniel L. Peyton and associate Adam Penman wrote in the June 2025 edition of PLC Magazine.
A recent study suggests most London office workers are not attending their workplace every weekday and many do not comply with hybrid work requirements, leaving employers to ask how they can enforce stricter compliance with hybrid policies or lawfully mandate a full return to the office, the authors wrote.
“Some employers have become almost paralysed by the employment rights of the workforce that touch on the issue of office attendance,” Peyton and Penman wrote. “However, employers are not only entitled to decide what level of attendance is best for their businesses and take the risk that they may lose good employees, they also have legal rights in connection with office attendance.”
Peyton and Penman, members of the firm’s Employment Litigation Practice Group, outlined key actions employers should take to increase compliance with workplace attendance policies. They stressed the importance of clearly communicating the business reasons for the policy and the disciplinary consequences of noncompliance.
“Following the appropriate process will help to justify the outcome, both in cases where the employee’s purported justification is not legally compelling and, importantly, in cases where it is legally compelling but there are nonetheless legitimate reasons to require compliance,” they wrote.