Employment tribunals relating to remote working were nearly 11% higher in 2024 than the previous year, according to analysis of employment tribunal records by HR consultancy Hamilton Nash.
Its analysis of court records by HM Courts and Tribunals Service found that staff resistance to employers encouraging them to work from the office more frequently is shown in the growing number of employment tribunals citing terms such as remote working.
A total of 62 tribunals cited remote working in 2024, up from 56 cases in 2023. There were 44 tribunals that mentioned remote working in 2022, almost half the amount in 2021, at 27, and less again in 2020, at 17.
There were fewer than eight remote working tribunals on average in the years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic, but, on average, there have been 41 a year since then.
Jim Moore, employee relations expert at Hamilton Nash, said: “Tribunal cases relating to remote working were nearly 11% higher in 2024 compared to the year before; a trend that should surprise no one. Last year, we saw a growing number of employers using increasingly authoritative methods to get their staff back to the office, despite the absence of any clear benefit to the organisations. Most of these conflicts didn’t get as far as an employment tribunal, and so the tribunal numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.
“Employers that force staff into the workplace against their will are likely to find that disputes escalate, resulting in an increasing turnover rate or costly legal remedies. With most employees favouring a mix of office and home working, the battle for workers’ hearts and minds is going to be won by progressive employers which embrace hybrid working. We’re expecting that more back-to-the-office mandates will result in more flexible-working disputes ending up in tribunals.”
