The government has published details of a proposed new law that will give employees the right to request to work remotely.
Announcing the details, enterprise minister Leo Varadkar (pictured) said employers should facilitate workers' choice of hybrid or remote working where possible.
"Up until now, remote and home working has been imposed on a lot of people due to the public health restrictions," Varadkar said.
"Now that they have been lifted, I want it to be a choice. I want workers to be able to work from home or remotely or hybrid if they want to. So long as the business get done and services are provided, employers should facilitate it."
The Tánaiste said that employers had "gone to great lengths to give their employees as much flexibility around where they work as possible", and that he wanted this state of affairs to continue in the post-Covid world.
In Association with
The Right to Request Remote Working Bill 2021 will give all employees the right to request remote working from their employer, who will be required to provide "reasonable grounds" for refusing to facilitate the request.
"These grounds are set out in the legislation, and we will develop Codes of Practice to provide guidance to help employers implement the new law," Varadkar continued.
“It will give employers and workers legal clarity on remote working, which became the default for many during the pandemic.”
Legal Framework
It will be the first legal framework for requesting, approving or refusing requests for remote work, and all workplaces will have to communicate to staff a written statement setting out the remote working policy, specifying how requests are managed, and the conditions that will apply to remote working within the organisations.
Where employers have completed the assessment process and any appeal has been heard, the employee will have to wait a period of 12 months to submit another request, provided they are in the same role.
An employee will be eligible to submit a request once they have worked for their employer for a period of six months, but employers can offer remote work from day one if desired, and they have 12 weeks to return a decision when a request is submitted.
Employees will have the right to appeal to the Workplace Relations Commission where employers have failed to respond to request or to provide any reasonable grounds for refusal.
Grounds For Refusal
As set out in the proposed legislation, an employer may decline a request for remote working stating the reasonable business grounds for doing so, which may include but are not limited to:
• The nature of the work not allowing for the work to be done remotely
• Cannot re-organise work among existing staff
• Potential negative impact on quality
• Potential negative impact on performance
• Planned structural changes
• Burden of additional costs, taking into account the financial and other costs entailed, and the scale and financial resources of the employer’s business
• Concerns re the protection of business confidentiality or intellectual property
• Concerns re the suitability of the proposed workspace on health and safety grounds
• Concerns re the suitability of the proposed workspace on data protection grounds
• Concerns re the internet connectivity of the proposed remote working location
• Inordinate distance between the proposed remote location and on-site location
• if the proposed remote working arrangement conflicts with the provisions of an applicable collective agreement
• Ongoing or recently concluded formal disciplinary processes.
Regulatory Burden
Small Firms Association director Sven Spollen-Behrens commented: “The right to request remote work must be balanced by the fundamental need of a business to operate effectively.
“Up to 30% of SHA members have said that they will continue with an online model, with one in five offering days in the business and days remotely.
“Employers recognise the changing nature of work and would have preferred a non-statutory mechanism to ensure this. Businesses are concerned with the element of the General Scheme where any business regardless of size must have a remote working policy.
"The SFA has long raised the issue of the regulatory burden on small businesses, and this is another facet of this. As the General Scheme of the Bill has now been published, government must continue to engage with stakeholders to ensure that any legislation passed is equitable and workable.”
Mary Connaughton, director of CIPD Ireland, said she was disappointed the Bill does not make provisions for flexible working.
"In its current form, the new law would give workers the right to request where they work, but not when and how," she commented. "We also note the proposed law requires that any remote working arrangement be fully assessed and tied down in an agreement between employer and employee.
"This raises the concern of the potential loss of flexibility that employees currently have around selecting which days they go to the workplace or having the freedom to complete work activities when they choose. It would also put a question mark over employers’ flexibility to invite employees on-site for specific activities or events which may occur on different days of the week.
"Finally, it’s surprising to see that employees will only be eligible for the right to request remote working once they’ve been with a company for six months. CIPD Ireland believes this period should be shorter,” she added.
Pic: RollingNews.ie
