Minister defends remote working legislation, but what does it entail?
Vivienne Clarke and Eva Osborne
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, Peter Burke, has defended remote working legislation following a Government review.
The review found that fewer than half of all employees in Ireland were aware that there was a formal, legal right to request a remote working arrangement.
The Government reiterates that the legislation provides a right to request, not a right to remote work.
The Department of Enterprise is to recommend that the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) revise the code to ensure employers give comprehensive and transparent reasons for their remote working decisions.
The proposed changes would also see the code providing clearer templates and guidance for employees applying for remote work.
The right to request a remote working arrangement came into force for all employees on March 6th, 2024.
Burke told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the current legislation was two years old and one million people were working remotely.
“Ipsos did a key study for us right around the time that consultation was going on and it showed that 94 per cent of people who requested remote working got what they wanted from the process.
“So a lot of people that are doing remote working would have informal arrangements they wouldn't have actually requested but what we did get from the data is that there's a huge lack of awareness that about 50 percent of people were unaware of their rights through their requesting remote working.
“We want to improve that, we're working with Minister Simon Harris in terms of expenses through the tax code that we can claim as well supporting them and we have a broadband plan bringing to 1.1 million people increasing that fibre optic cable which supports people to do just that.”
'People are getting what they want'
Richmond pointed out that “only 76 cases” had been referred to the WRC “out of over one million.” He denied this was representative of weakness in the current legislation.
“Absolutely not because people are getting what they want. The data says a million people are remote working now, we want to increase that option and also to look at female participation which is now at a record level up around 190,000 since quarter three 2019.
"So, that opportunity we took from the crisis that was Covid really has embedded in the system and I want to work with employer groups and employee groups to help improve it, revise the WRC code of practice working with Minister Alan Dillon, who's leading out in this, which I think we can improve the code of practice as well to support people in remote working," he said.
The Minister said the government was going to improve the code of practice and will set out the terms with employer and employee groups.
Not every job could be done remotely, “but we have to hive out opportunity that gives people a better quality of life I know from living in Mullingar there's so many people commuting right around our country that now can spend two to three days, they’re at home in the evening, time that they're not traveling, they're not in traffic, they’re with their families and I want to improve quality of life for people right through our country.
“We're the first country in Europe to do this, the legislation is only two years old on the 6th of March, one million people across our economy are now utilising remote working, we want to strengthen that, we're going to strengthen the code of practice and also we're going to support people by improving infrastructure and also how they can claim expenses and deductions by doing that and that's where the government is very much working hand in glove with employers and employees to support them to have a better quality of life and better time with their families.”
