I don't think promotion is a right of any kind - there are many jobs where that's it and you're never promoted. It would actually be ridiculous (though not unexpected for some places) to have laws related to promotion.
That said, it's really dumb corporate policy, it basically telling people to do the minimum or leave.
> It would actually be ridiculous (though not unexpected for some places) to have laws related to promotion.
The problem is that for many organizations, promotion is the only way your wage keeps up with inflation (without leaving, of course). Having a class of employees who get receive a different wage for the same work, particularly when that class aligns to a different set of demographics than in-office employees, is problematic at best, and I look forward to a court ruling it illegal. Promotion doesn't always mean a different job, sometimes it really just means different pay for the same job.
the goal may be to push out the old people but they're not going to be chasing promotion the way the Gen Z folks will.
paradoxically, the cat is out of the bag for Gen Z, and remote is seen as a given for them. it's a way to freeze the pay of the quiet-quitter remote types.
older (as in nearish to retirement) workers will accept what they have while remote until their out.
the mid-level folks in their late 20-40s will be most impacted, and I suspect the qualified ones will split instead of being frozen. that may be the goal, but it's also going to push out a crop of otherwise qualified folks that would be major drivers of future initiatives. like, a future director (currently manager) is going to accept this, sit on it for 3 years, and then jump to another org that will tolerate their remoteness.
there is a "prove your serious" angle by forcing them into the office, but I suspect that's only going to get mediocre talent who can't negotiate elsewhere for better bennies. or else "true believers" which generally mean suckers, in the Ribbonfarm-Clueless-Losers-Psychopaths sense.
That said, it's really dumb corporate policy, it basically telling people to do the minimum or leave.