An Oireachtas committee wants the government to beef up provisions of its Remote Work Bill to ensure workers are treated fairly by employers when they exercise their right to work from home.

The Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment has made 20 recommendations which it intends “will assist the Tánaiste in improving this important piece of legislation”. 

Business minister Leo Varadkar referred the Bill to the committee for pre-legislative scrutiny in February, and its report calls for alterations in the proposed Bill to provide a comprehensive framework to support different working arrangements on a more permanent basis, following what its report calls the “sudden introduction of home working”.

Committee chair Maurice Quinlivan (pictured) said: “The sudden introduction of home working often resulted in less-than-ideal working conditions for both employers and employees. This Bill aims to provide a comprehensive framework to support different working arrangements on a more permanent basis.
 
“When this legislation proceeds, the Joint Committee requests that the key issues raised in this report and the conclusions reached during the pre-legislative scrutiny process are taken on board by the government — and implemented.”

Some of the recommendations are:

In Association with

• The Committee advocates improving the initial right of the worker by removing the need to work 26 weeks before request.
• Recommends remote working should incorporate hybrid and flexible working as well.
• Acknowledges difficulties faced by small and medium enterprises regarding the drafting of policies relating remote working, so bureaucracy should be kept to a minimum for such enterprises and supports should be provided in these cases.
• Recommends that codes of good practice are quickly evolved so that refusals are grounded in a stated policy from employers, founded on these codes.
• Proposes that the principles underpinning a reasonable Code of Practice should now be set out in law and allow the Workplace Relations Commission to design how they should be applied in different workplace situations.
• Proposes legislation should mandate the WRC to draw up a Code of Practice in the first instance upon which the policies of employers would be based. This code could be changed as required as technology and other factors change and evolve.
• Recommends introducing tighter grounds in primary legislation so that unreasonable refusal should be open to challenge.
• The committee notes the employer should retain the right to respond within 12 weeks if the employer can cite a reason such as the need to engage health and safety consultants or check a proposed remote working location for internet quality.

The report also says: “The Bill starts with a statement of quite limited workers’ rights. It is reasonable to give business the time to adapt. However, the intention should be that unreasonable refusal should be open to challenge.”

Among the heads of the Bill identified for further examination by the committee and witnesses are the number of grounds to refuse a request (Head 12), the requirement for a remote working policy (Head 14), Codes of Practice (Head 18), the six-month service requirement (Head 6), submitting another request (Head 7), the time-limit for a response to a request (Head 10) and the Right of Appeal to the Workplace Relations Commission (Head 16).