Earlier this year Fórsa secured a new policy giving all civil servants the right to apply for remote or blended working under a new framework agreed between unions and the Department of Public Expenditure and reform (DPER).

When the guidelines for blended working were published it contained the following note: “Requests for a blended working arrangement as a reasonable accommodation should be dealt with under the usual process for seeking reasonable accommodation, and not through the Blended Working Policy.”

Fórsa official Seán Carabini explained why this was included and what it might mean for some members.

“Blended working is simply another way to arrange a typical workday. It is not an accommodation that a person has sought to assist them for a particular reason,” he began.

“There are some members that, for different reasons may require the ability to work from home all the time. This could be because of a disability or a long-term condition. Members in this category should be careful to discuss the matter first with the Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) in their workplace and not apply for it through the blended working arrangements.

“If you have a medical practitioner who is willing to stand over a person needing to work from home due to a disability - or an illness classed as disability under equality legislation – then your request to be ‘reasonably accommodated’ should be made via the DLO,” he explained.

The area of ‘reasonable accommodation’ has evolved over the years and is very strong in certain sectors. The issue was dealt with in the Supreme Court and as a result there is clear guidance on how reasonable accommodation requests should be dealt with by an employer.

Seán explained that if the request has been made correctly and has been unfairly refused, the union is there to assist members in bringing cases to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) under equality legislation.

“The Civil Service policy has been very careful to separate out blended working from ‘reasonable accommodations’ that require working from home. But I have seen cases where the matter has been confused. Simply put – a blended working policy can never trump a reasonable accommodation request made correctly in accordance with the legislation,” he said.

When asked about how the area is likely to evolve, he noted: “I can see how some people would need a reasonable accommodation to work remotely to help them better manage disabilities, family issues, etc. An employer who refuses such a request when it has been properly made and based on one of the nine grounds contained in the equality acts would want to tread very carefully.”

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