Mobility clause: UK sample and the limits on using it

Sample clause

Written for an employment contract between Ridings Retail, a fictional Wakefield grocery chain, and a store manager.

Place of Work. (a) The Employee's normal place of work is the Company's store at Westgate, Wakefield. (b) The Company may require the Employee to work at any other Company store within 40 miles of that store, on giving at least 4 weeks' written notice, where reasonably required for the needs of the business. (c) Before giving notice, the Company will consult the Employee and take into account the Employee's personal circumstances, including caring responsibilities and travel arrangements. (d) If a move increases the Employee's daily travel cost, the Company will reimburse the additional cost for 6 months from the date of the move. (e) The Company will not require the Employee to move home.

Sample wording, not legal advice.

Variants

What to negotiate

• Reasonable notice

  Tribunals have held that even an express mobility clause is subject to an implied term that the employer gives reasonable notice and does not make performance impossible, the point decided in United Bank v Akhtar. Notice of a few days for a move to a distant site has been found to breach the implied duty of trust and confidence. Four weeks for a local move, and longer for a relocation, is a safer standard.

• Indirect discrimination for carers

  A requirement to move can disadvantage people with childcare or caring duties, who are more often women, which can be indirect sex discrimination under section 19 of the Equality Act 2010 unless the employer shows it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Consulting the employee and taking personal circumstances into account, as the sample does, helps show the decision was proportionate.

• Redundancy when a site closes

  Under section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, a redundancy situation exists where the need for work at the place where the employee is employed ceases. Tribunals look at where the employee actually worked, not only at the mobility clause. An employer closing a site may still owe redundancy pay if a move is outside what the employee was really expected to do, though unreasonably refusing a suitable alternative can lose it.

The risk of leaving it out

Without a mobility clause, moving an employee to a different workplace is a change to their contract that needs their agreement. An employer that insists may face constructive dismissal claims, and if the site closes, every employee there is potentially redundant. A clear, limited clause avoids negotiating each move from scratch.

Reasonable and unreasonable use

Uses that tribunals have treated as reasonable: a move to a site within normal commuting distance, with adequate notice, after consultation, for a genuine business reason, with help on extra travel costs. Uses treated as unreasonable or as a breach of trust and confidence: a move with a few days' notice to a distant site; a move used as a pretext to push someone out; a move that ignores a known caring responsibility without good reason; a move outside the area the clause allows. The clause is a power to be used fairly, not a trump card. Law checked on 21 October 2026. This page explains how the clause works and is not legal advice.

Mobility clauses and redundancy

When a site closes, an employer can try to rely on a mobility clause to move staff instead of making them redundant. Tribunals have generally asked where the employee actually worked rather than where the contract says they could be sent, so a wide clause does not automatically avoid redundancy. An offer of suitable alternative employment at another site, made properly, can still mean an employee who unreasonably refuses loses redundancy pay. The ACAS guidance on changing contracts and on redundancy sets out the process.

Writing a clause that works

The narrower and clearer the clause, the more likely it is to be enforced. Name the normal place of work, define the area or distance, set a notice period, commit to consultation, and state what support is given. Avoid wording such as anywhere the Company may require, which tempts unreasonable use. In a contract generated with the AI document generator, ask for the place of work and the mobility clause together, so the base location and the radius sit in one place.

Remote and hybrid work

Mobility clauses deal with moving between the employer's sites. Working from home, or splitting time between home and office, is a different arrangement covered by a flexible work clause and, in the UK, the statutory right to request flexible working. A hybrid worker's contract should say which office is the base for any mobility clause, so a move is measured from the right place.

Documents that carry this clause

Employment contractA full time ongoing contract for an operations coordinator on $86,000 plus $10,320 of superannuation. Eleven numbered clauses, a leave table drawn from the National Employment Standards, and a notice table that scales with service.Employee transfer letter naming the new site, the manager and the start dateMoving someone between sites is only a small change on paper and a large one in their week, so the letter has to answer both. This one names the new store, the new manager and the team size, fixes the first day, funds the extra 14 kilometres for twelve weeks, and lists what carries across untouched.Secondment agreement template for a council engineer and a host utilityA secondment agreement template sets out how an employee works for another organisation for a fixed period while staying employed by their own. It needs three signatures because three parties carry obligations: the home employer keeps paying, the host directs the work and pays it back, and the secondee keeps their job to return to.

Questions people ask