From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwork to rulework to ruleBritish EnglishBEL to protest about a situation at work by doing your job slowly, with the excuse that you must obey all the rules exactly → work
Examples from the Corpus
work to rule• Video-Tape, no voice over ARNCOTT/Oxfordshire Prison officers at Bullingdon prison near Bicester began their work to rule last night.• Plants work to rules rather different from those of animals.work-to-ruleˌwork-to-ˈrule noun [singular] BELa situation in which people in a particular job refuse to do any additional work as a protest → strike → work to rule at work1(32)Examples from the Corpus
work-to-rule• Some students had to do an extra year because of the staff work-to-rule.• Because of their work-to-rule, teachers were no longer taking after-school clubs or supervising lunch hours.From Longman Business Dictionarywork-to-ruleˌwork-to-ˈrule British English, work-to-contract American English noun [singular]HUMAN RESOURCES an occasion when people protest about a situation at work by doing their job less quickly or effectively, but without breaking their employer’s rules or the terms of their contractThe work-to-rule exposed the chronic staffing problems in the emergency services. → see also work to rule under work1 