work to rule
n.— «Teachers are now following the existing contract to the letter, a practice called “work to rule.” Teachers begin and end the work day specified in the contract and no earlier or later.» —“Westborough teacher contract talks heat up” by John Fenuccio MetroWest Daily News (Framingham, Massachusetts) Apr. 23, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...
This has been used, in England at least, for decades — at least since the 1950s when I first heard it, and I suspect much earlier. The derivation is from the union rule book.
I haven’t looked up any references yet, but I am sure they will be easy to find.