Your employer has to justify cancelling a work-from-home arrangement, not just announce it.

The situation

A new mother agreed with her employer that she would return from maternity leave working from home, with no end date set. Three monthsThe standard time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims, running from the date of the act complained of. Because the limit is three months less one day, you should not wait until what fee... later, her employer told all staff that working from the office was now compulsory. She explained that her baby was still exclusively breastfed and asked to keep working from home. Her employer gave her a short extension, then pushed ahead with the office mandate regardless. At a meeting in front of senior managers, a colleague told her she should get the baby's grandparents to help with childcare instead.

What the tribunal found

Requiring everyone to work from the office put women, who still carry most of the burden of breastfeeding and childcare after maternity leave, at a particular disadvantage, and it put her at that disadvantage too. That made the office mandate indirect sex discrimination under section 19 of the Equality Act 2010The main piece of legislation protecting employees from discrimination at work. It covers nine protected characteristics including age, disability, sex, race, and religion, and makes it unlawful for a.... Her employer offered no evidence that the policy was a proportionate way of achieving any real business aim. It simply asserted a preference for people to be in the office.

The tribunal also upheld one act of harassment. The colleague did not intend the grandparents comment to cause offence, but the tribunal found that it did, made as it was in front of her superiors, and that it was reasonable for her to feel that way.

Her eventual resignation was found to be a constructive dismissal. Her employer let her grievanceA formal complaint raised by an employee against their employer, triggering a legal obligation to investigate and respond. appeal drag on and never addressed further concerns she raised within it. That, on top of everything else, was enough to break the trust and confidence the employment relationship depends on.

If your employer changes a work-from-home arrangement you already have, especially one linked to breastfeeding or childcare after maternity leave, they cannot simply announce the change and expect you to comply. They have to show the change is genuinely necessary for the business and that there was no less disruptive way to achieve the same aim. Fail that test, and a change that disadvantages you because of your sex can be indirect discriminationA rule or policy that applies to everyone equally but ends up putting people with a particular protected characteristic, like age or sex, at a disadvantage. It's unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 u... on its own, even before anything else goes wrong.

A comment about how you should handle childcare can still cause real harm, even when it sounds like friendly advice. If it is made in front of colleagues or managers and leaves you humiliated, on top of pressure you are already under, it is worth raising. It can support a harassment claim in its own right.

Watch how your employer handles any grievance you raise, especially at appeal stage. Long, unexplained delays and new concerns that simply get ignored are exactly the kind of conduct that can justify resigning and claiming constructive dismissal, on top of whatever your original complaint was about. If you are in this position, get advice before you resign. The timing and the way you frame your reasons both matter.

For more on how a mishandled grievance appeal can support a constructive dismissal claim on its own, see your employer's obligation to give you a proper opportunity to raise and resolve grievances.