It is very common that an employee is asked by their employer to change their workplace location. Sometimes this can be quite a burden to the employee as there can be significant issues that come with changing workplace locations. For instance, the employee may face a much longer commute time and added costs associated with the greater distance between their residence and the new workplace.

You May Have Been Constructively Dismissed

In Ontario, constructive dismissal occurs when the employee’s fundamental terms of employment are changed unilaterally by the employer. In such instances, the employee may be forced to leave their job without being directly fired or terminated by the employer. How the employee leaves the workplace is not crucial to the analysis of what is a constructive dismissal per se. What is crucial is that an employee’s employment should be impacted to the point where it would be unreasonable to stay employed and to accept the fundamental changes made to their employment.

Therefore, in cases where an employer has demanded that an employee must move to a new workplace location, it may be constructive dismissal. However, further analysis would be needed. The likelihood that those changes are constructive dismissal goes up if the new workplace location requires the employee to make substantial changes to their life to accommodate that change. This may make it intolerable for the employee because they cannot handle the increased time it takes to commute, it may interfere with certain family or childcare responsibilities, or the cost of the commute may be too expensive for the employee to undertake.

We have other blogs and articles about constructive dismissal. For more information please review:

• What You Need to Know About Constructive Dismissal
• When to Hire an Employment Lawyer in Ontario: 5 Key Signs
• Forced to Resign? Understanding Constructive Dismissal

Return-to-Office Mandates

Return-to-office mandates that require remote employees to return to work in-person were widespread in 2024 and in 2025. Remote work flourished in the COVID-19 pandemic and when that pandemic started to wind down, we saw a substantial uptick in employers demanding that employees return to the office in-person. We anticipate that this may continue into 2026 as well. This issue is very related to a demand by an employer to change their workplace location and in some instances these issues would be identical.

In instances of return-to-office mandates, whether such a demand by the employer amounts to constructive dismissal would be determined is a similar way to that of a demand to change an employee’s workplace location. If the employee’s job was originally set out as a job that was remote or if the employee has been a remote employee for a sustained period, the employer may not be able to enforce a return-to-office mandate without the risk of on a constructive dismissal claim by the employee. In a case where an employee has been working remotely for a sustained period, the employee may be able to argue in equity that in spite of the fact that the employer has a legal right to ask the employee to work in-person, the employee may claim that he or she has detrimentally relied on the arrangement and that they may not be able to return to work in-person.

If our readers would like to learn more specifically about return-to-office mandates they can review our guide entitled “Return to Office Mandates“.

Steps To Take Before an Employee Agrees to Move to the New Workplace Location

Here are some steps that an employee can take if the employee’s employer demands that they move workplace locations and the employee has concerns about that demand. Also, these steps are steps that an employee should take before they agree to the demand by the employer to move locations.

1. The employee should get specific information about the expected move to a new workplace location by the employer. For example, the employee should know exactly when and where the move is going to happen and what expectations the employer has of the employee related to that move.
2. The employee should review their employment contract to see if there are any clauses in their employment contract or agreement related to possible workplace location changes.
3. The employee should gather evidence of why this change to a new workplace location would cause the employee significant difficulties such as calculating the increased commute times, determining the increased costs associated with the commute or setting out specific difficulties with managing childcare of familial responsibilities due to the change in workplace locations.
4. The employee should then take the information from #1 – 3 above and approach an employment lawyer in order understand their options and maintain their employment law entitlements to termination and severance pay.

How Zeilikman Law Can Help

The employment lawyers at Zeilikman Law can help employees who think they may be experiencing a constructive dismissal such as by their employer demanding that they change workplace locations by reviewing the facts of the matter and determining what further action an employee could take to protect their employment rights to termination and severance pay.

If you are an employee where your employer has demanded that you change workplace location and you have concerns about that change, do not hesitate to contact Zeilikman Law. You can contact us at (905) 417-2227 or online here to schedule a confidential consultation.