REMOTE WORKING POLICY
Important legal-advice, jurisdiction and formality warning
This fictional policy is a worked example for an employer operating in England and Wales. It is not legal advice, does not create a contractual right to work remotely, and is not a substitute for an employee's contract, a flexible-working decision, a risk assessment or a case-specific equality assessment. Before adopting it, the employer must check the current Employment Rights Act rules, health and safety duties, working-time requirements, National Minimum Wage implications, Equality Act 2010 duties, UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 requirements, tax treatment, insurance, immigration conditions, collective arrangements and any applicable company policies. A remote arrangement must not be used to disadvantage a disabled employee, a pregnant employee or anyone exercising a statutory right. The employer must consult the employee where a contract or established practice is affected, record any agreed variation in the required form, and review this policy against current law. All names, dates, addresses, figures and business details below are fictional.
Owner, approval and status
This policy is issued by Mereford Digital Services Limited, company number 14920863, whose registered office is 18 St Cuthbert's Square, York YO1 7HP. It applies from 1 September 2026 to employees and workers whose role has been approved for remote or hybrid working. The policy owner is Eleanor Ruth Price, People Director, reachable at people@mereford.example.test. It was approved by Callum James Wren, Managing Director, on 20 August 2026, and will be reviewed on 1 September 2027 or sooner after a material change. It is a non-contractual policy. It does not alter an employee's agreed hours, place of work, pay, duties or notice provisions unless a separate written agreement says so.
For this policy, “remote working” means performing agreed work away from the employer's York office or another ordinary workplace. “Homeworking” means working from an approved home address. “Hybrid working” means a planned combination of approved remote work and attendance at an office or other authorised site. “Remote workday” means a day on which the employee is approved to work remotely. “Manager” means the person responsible for allocating and supervising the employee's work.
1. Purpose and principles
The policy supports effective work, service continuity, recruitment, inclusion and a reasonable balance between concentrated work and collaboration. It is not intended to make every role suitable for remote work. Decisions will be based on the work to be performed, customer and information-security requirements, supervision, team coordination, health and safety, service coverage and the employee's circumstances. A request will be considered fairly and consistently, but a request can be declined for a genuine business reason. A manager must not treat remote work as a reward or office attendance as a measure of commitment by itself.
Remote working remains subject to the employee's contract and to lawful management instructions. An employee must attend the office, a client site, training, a meeting or another workplace when reasonably required, including when a remote day has been planned, unless an agreed adjustment or other legal protection applies. The employer will give reasonable notice where practicable and will consider the impact of an instruction on caring responsibilities, disability, pregnancy, religion or belief and other relevant circumstances.
2. Eligibility and approval
An employee who wants a regular arrangement should discuss the proposal with their Manager and submit a written request to people@mereford.example.test. The request should state the proposed days, work location, start date, duration, contact hours, equipment needs, expected effect on work and any support or adjustment requested. An employee may instead make a statutory flexible-working application; that application will be handled under the statutory process and timescales in force when it is made. The People team will tell the employee which process is being used and will not require an informal request as a substitute for a statutory application.
The Manager will consult the employee, consider the role and operational requirements, and refer any health or safety or adjustment issue to the People team. Approval requires written confirmation stating the agreed location, days or pattern, hours, review date, office attendance, expenses and any conditions. A pilot may be approved for three months. Approval for one employee does not create an entitlement for another employee. An arrangement approved for a particular address cannot be silently transferred to another address or used while travelling abroad.
The Manager may refuse or restrict a proposal only after considering the employee's evidence and a reasonable range of alternatives. Reasons may include inability to reorganise work, detrimental effect on quality or performance, inability to meet customer demand, insufficient work during the proposed hours, inability to recruit or retain staff, detrimental effect on team performance, burden of additional cost, or insufficient work at the proposed location. These are examples rather than an automatic checklist. The response will explain the actual reason and any review or appeal route. The People team will monitor decisions for consistency and equality impact.
3. Locations, hours and availability
The standard approved homeworking address for Nadia Elise Morgan, Client Support Lead, is 42 Linton Grove, York YO24 1RF. This example address is part of the fictional arrangement and must not be copied for another employee. Nadia's written arrangement, approved on 25 August 2026, is Mondays and Wednesdays at home and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at the York office, 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. Her Manager is Oliver Thomas Reed, Customer Operations Manager. The arrangement begins on 1 September 2026 and has a first review on 30 November 2026.
The employee must be available through the agreed communication systems during working hours, take breaks, record time where the role requires it and keep the Manager informed of unexpected absence or interruption. Caring responsibilities must not be performed at the same time as working unless a separate arrangement has been agreed; the employee should speak to the Manager about leave or flexibility. The employer will not require an employee to work excessive hours or to monitor messages continuously. Employees must follow the Working Time policy and raise a concern about workload or rest immediately.
Remote work may not be carried out from a café, shared public area, a vehicle while driving, a holiday property, another person's home or an overseas location unless the Manager and People team have approved that location in writing after checking confidentiality, insurance, tax, immigration, working-time and data-transfer consequences. The employee must tell the Manager if the approved home address changes, becomes unavailable or is shared in a way that may compromise confidential work.
4. Work equipment and costs
Mereford will provide Nadia with a managed laptop, encrypted headset, security key, monitor, laptop stand and approved cable set. IT will record asset numbers MS-LT-2048, MS-MON-118 and MS-KEY-077 against her account. Equipment remains company property, must be transported securely, and must be returned promptly when requested or when employment ends. The employee must not lend it to a family member, install unapproved software or use it for a commercial side business.
The employer will maintain the laptop and approved software. It will reimburse reasonable, evidenced additional household costs that are necessarily incurred wholly because of approved remote work, in accordance with the expenses procedure. A monthly homeworking allowance of £26.00 is approved for Nadia from September 2026, subject to the employer's review of tax treatment and the requirement that it relates to the approved arrangement. It is not a wage increase and is not payable for a month in which the arrangement has ended. The employer will not pay ordinary rent, mortgage, food, childcare, furniture, broadband upgrade or utility costs unless People and Finance approve a specific written arrangement. Claims must be submitted by the fifth working day of the following month with an explanation and receipt where available.
Before an employee starts, the Manager must ensure that essential meetings, reception cover and customer response times remain covered. A failure of broadband or power should be reported to the Manager and IT. The employee should use an approved alternative workplace or attend the office only if directed and safe to do so. No employee should purchase equipment personally in the expectation of reimbursement without written approval.
5. Health, safety and wellbeing
The employee must complete the homeworking assessment before the first remote workday and repeat it after a material change, an accident or a significant equipment change. The assessment covers the chair and desk, screen height, lighting, ventilation, temperature, cables, electrical safety, fire escape, first aid, lone working, contact arrangements and the separation of work from rest. The employee must provide reasonable information to enable the employer to assess the work area, but the employer will respect privacy and will arrange a proportionate virtual or in-person assessment rather than entering a home without agreement.
The employer will provide workstation guidance and a display-screen assessment. Nadia must use the supplied stand and take regular short breaks or changes of activity during screen work. She must report pain, injury, stress, excessive workload, unsafe conditions or domestic violence risk through People or her Manager; she will not be penalised for making a good-faith safety report. The employer will consider occupational-health advice and reasonable adjustments, which may include different equipment, altered hours, office access, additional breaks, a phased arrangement or a change of work location. Medical information will be handled confidentially and shared only on a need-to-know basis.
An accident, near miss, work-related illness or damage to company equipment must be reported to the Manager and People team as soon as reasonably practicable. The employee must keep a clear working area and must not work while impaired by alcohol, non-prescribed drugs or any condition that makes the work unsafe. The employer will provide employee-assistance information and regular one-to-one contact; a remote employee remains entitled to raise a grievance, report bullying or harassment, and access support without travelling to the office where a reasonable alternative is needed.
6. Confidentiality, data protection and security
The employee must work in a private area, lock the screen when away, use multi-factor authentication, keep papers in a secure place and prevent household members from seeing or hearing confidential material. Confidential calls should use a headset and approved system. Printed material must be kept to the minimum and shredded through an approved service or returned to the office. Company information must not be saved to a personal device, personal email, unapproved cloud service or removable drive.
Only the employer's managed laptop and approved applications may access customer and employee records. The employee must follow the Information Security and Data Protection policies, promptly install required updates, report a lost device or suspected breach to security@mereford.example.test and IT on 01904 555 284 within one hour of discovery, and not investigate or conceal an incident. Data must be shared only with authorised recipients. The employee must not record a meeting, photograph a screen or allow another person to use an account without authorisation.
Mereford may process access logs, security alerts, work messages and support records for security, service management, legal compliance and investigation, with appropriate safeguards and information under its privacy notice. Monitoring is not a substitute for trust or a general measure of domestic activity. Managers must not ask an employee to keep a webcam on continuously or to disclose unrelated personal information.
7. Performance, contact and office attendance
Performance will be measured by agreed outputs, service levels, quality, collaboration, attendance at required meetings and compliance with duties, not by a hidden assumption that an employee is constantly online. Oliver will hold a weekly one-to-one with Nadia on Tuesdays, a monthly workload review and a quarterly review of the arrangement. Nadia will attend the monthly customer escalation meeting in York unless a reasonable adjustment or a different written arrangement is agreed. The Manager will give clear objectives and prompt feedback and will use the capability or conduct process where concerns arise.
The employer may require office attendance for a team event on 16 September 2026 and a safeguarding training session on 7 October 2026, giving at least five working days' notice in this example. If attendance causes a disability, pregnancy or other protected difficulty, the employee must contact People promptly so adjustments can be considered. A remote day should not be cancelled informally by a colleague or used as a disciplinary sanction.
8. Review, change and ending an arrangement
The first review on 30 November 2026 will consider customer response times, workload, quality, wellbeing, safety, team coordination, costs and the employee's experience. Nadia may submit evidence or request an adjustment. A review is not a promise of continuation. The Manager will confirm the outcome in writing within ten working days and give reasons if the pattern changes.
The employer may suspend or amend an arrangement after consultation where there is a genuine operational, safety, security or performance reason. It will consider alternatives and any adjustment before doing so. Except for an urgent security or safety issue, the employer will normally give at least four weeks' notice of a proposed end date. An employee may request a change or end the arrangement after discussing notice and handover. Ending remote work does not itself end employment and is not a redundancy decision.
Concerns should first be raised with Oliver Reed or Eleanor Price. A statutory flexible-working appeal, grievance or discrimination concern will be handled under the relevant process and time limit, separately from this policy's informal review. The policy will be communicated to employees, retained in the policy register and reviewed with employee feedback. Acknowledgement confirms receipt only and does not convert the policy into a contractual term.
Approval and acknowledgement
For Mereford Digital Services Limited:
Callum James Wren, Managing Director Signature: ____________________ Date: 20 August 2026
Policy owner: Eleanor Ruth Price, People Director Signature: ____________________ Date: 20 August 2026
Employee acknowledgement: Nadia Elise Morgan, Client Support Lead Signature: ____________________ Date: 1 September 2026
The employee's signature records receipt and discussion of the policy. It does not confirm that every remote-workday will continue or waive any statutory, contractual or equality right.