The problem is that there were lots of folks hired with the explicit promise that remote was here to stay. This is at best a rug-pull; IMO it's like your salary suddenly being slashed by 20% a few months after you started with no explanation. It's not technically illegal in most places, but it certainly feels really bad and makes me sure I never want to work there.
It's not technically illegal but constitutes a constructive dismissal afaik, meaning you qualify for unemployment and I think if over a certain number of people are 'dismissed' it's WARN act triggering.
Not a lawyer, not particularly well informed, but this is my understanding.
Does this apply at Amazon? I have several friends who moved away during covid and most of them were explicitly told that the remote work was a temporary covid thing, but it kept getting extended as the pandemic continued. Moving away was a gambit that this would last forever. This worked for some, and didn’t go so well for others.
Amazon has publicly changed course on this issue several times since the beginning of the pandemic. I am going to start linking this comment every time I see something like this on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37314299