Can a company terminate an employee, if asking for work from home extension due to medical condition? he is a good performer and WFH since covid now company wants him to return back and start work from office.
And what are the employee rights if company terminates due to work from home request for 4 months?
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Yes if the contract states the job location, explicitly.
Organizations may allow an employee to continue on leave or provide certain privileges but is not a right in most cases. Maternity or workplace accident-related work arrangements are different.
If the organization wanted to insist on 100% work from the office, management may circulate a notice to all with a timeline. Open a channel for addressing employee queries and concerns. Management may take a call on whether to give an extension to somebody on a case-to-case basis.
Also if the termination of an employee is indispensable (other than disciplinary proceedings due to major conduct issues), recommend trying to reach a mutual separation (voluntary resignation) so that both parties can benefit.
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Termination is a negative act and should be avoided. We live in a democratic country and all are free to ask/write/say as per their feelings. Termination just due to asking for WFH will be an Autocratic way of managing employees.
WFH during Covid time has made employees a little bit lazy as they do not need to take leaves and work from any location.
Now when companies are returning back to offline work and employees are being called to work from the office, a general such type of requests are common. There is no pressure from the Government to keep employees WFH and companies are free to do as per their choice.
So in your case it depends totally on the HR policy. If the office has opened and there is no system of WFH then why will there be any application for WFH on any ground, specially on Medical ground. If the employee is not fit to join then he/she should apply for Medical/ Sick leave. In that case, the HR department should make decisions accordingly.
As you have mentioned that the employee is a good performer, All these points should be discussed with the employee and decisions should be taken accordingly.
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