Work-to-rule

Work-to-rule is an industrial action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract, and precisely follow safety or other regulations in order to cause a slowdown, rather than to serve their purposes. Such an action is considered less disruptive than a strike or lockout; and just obeying the rules is less susceptible to disciplinary action. Notable examples have included nurses refusing to answer telephones and police officers refusing to issue citations. Refusal to work overtime, travel on duty, or sign up to other tasks requiring employee assent are other manifestations of using work-to-rule as industrial action.

It has been described as a decision to "Give the rules a meaning which no reasonable man could give them and work to that."

Sometimes the term "rule-book slowdown" is used in a slightly different sense than "work-to-rule": the former involves applying to-the-letter rules that are normally set aside or interpreted less literally to increase efficiency; the latter, refraining from activities which are customary but not required by rule or job description but the terms may be used synonymously.

Work-to-rules can be misconstrued as malicious when it is only an insistence to take all legally entitled breaks, or refusing a request to work overtime.

Sometimes work-to-rule can be considered by employers as malicious compliance as they pursue legal action against workers.

"Work-to-rule" is also known as "Italian strike". In Italy and other countries (e.g. Slovenia or Croatia) it is known as a "white strike" (Italian: sciopero bianco, Slovene: bela stavka, Croatian: bijeli štrajk).