Revised legislation to implement the Government’s promise to give all workers a right to request remote working won’t be published until the autumn at the earliest. Earlier this month, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) called for the new law to be made a legislative priority, as employers’ groups continued to cool on the idea.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment conclude its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Right to Request Remote Work Bill on 7th July. It recommended that the proposed “cumbersome” grounds for refusing remote working in the Government’s original proposals be revised, and said workers should not have to have 26 weeks’ service before being allowed to apply.

But Fórsa and other unions have criticised delays in making good on the promise to legislate, which was first announced to great fanfare in January 2021.

ICTU general secretary Patricia King said the Government should act without further delay to ensure the gains from remote working were not lost. “There has been a deficit of ambition by Government to deliver on their commitment to providing workers the right to request remote work," she said.

Patricia also rejected the idea, put forward by some employers, that legal rights aren’t needed because remote work is already on offer to workers. “This does not tally with what we are hearing from union representatives on the ground. Their experience is that employers are reluctant to engage until this legislation is enacted,” she said.

Speaking at the Fórsa national conference in May, the union’s president Michael Smyth said the Government had returned to old and outmoded ways of thinking instead of looking forward. He described this as “a spectacular own goal after two years of a revolutionary real-world experience.”

The union says Government foot-dragging has created a vacuum that employers are now using to row back on support for remote and blended working. As an employer, the Government dragged out negotiations on a framework for blended working in the civil and public service, and we’ve seen the same approach on the legislation for a legal right to request.

From early 2021, Fórsa urged ministers not to lose the momentum created by the huge success of remote work during the pandemic. But that’s exactly what they’ve done, and employers’ representatives have withdrawn support for a radical shift to new ways of working. Ibec has said legislation is “premature” and the Dublin Chamber of Commerce has called for legislation to be postponed.

But all the evidence shows they are swimming against the tide as studies continue to show remote working to be productive and popular among workers.

A recent large study from NUI Galway’s Whitaker Institute and the Western Development Commission revealed that almost a third of respondents had changed jobs since 2020, with 47% of them saying remote working was a key factor in their decision.