The long-awaited details of a new law that will give Irish workers the right to request remote working were revealed by the Tanaiste on Tuesday.
Leo Varadkar published details of the new regulation which will be introduced in order to "make better terms and conditions for workers a legacy of the pandemic".
The Right to Request Remote Working Bill 2021 will provide a legal framework for the first time on working from home requests and refusals.
“Up until now, remote and home working has been imposed on a lot of people due to the public health restrictions. Now that they have been lifted, I want it to be a choice," Mr Varadkar said.
"I want workers to be able to work from home or remotely or hybrid if they want to. So long as the business gets done and services are provided, employers should facilitate it."
The Enterprise Minister added that "the world has changed" because of Covid and the new law "will give employers and workers legal clarity on remote working which became the default for many during the pandemic".
“We have a real opportunity now to change the norm and learn what we can from the pandemic," Mr Varadar said.
"This new right is in addition to the right to disconnect, our investment in remote working hubs across the country and our changes to the treatment of home working costs through Budget 2022.”
Under the legislation, there will be 13 reasons why an employer can refuse a request for remote working from a staff member.
These include, but are not limited to:
- The nature of the work not allowing for the work to be done remotely
- Cannot reorganise 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.
According to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, all workplaces must have a written statement which sets out the company’s Remote Working Policy.
This should specify the manner in which remote working requests are managed and the conditions which will apply to remote working generally within the organisation.
The department states: "Where the employer has diligently 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.
"If an employee moves to a new role within the company, they may submit a fresh request.
"The new law provides for a time-limit for an employer to return a decision in relation to a request from an employee. The employer can set out their own specific time limit but it must not be more than 12 weeks.
"An employee will be eligible to submit a request once they have worked for their employer for a period of six months. However, an employer is free to offer remote work from day one if desired."
If an employer has failed to respond to a request or to provide any reasonable grounds for refusal, the employee will be a right of appeal to the Workplace Relations Commission.
