13 reasons employers can reject a remote-work request
Workers’ right to appeal the decision to the Workplace Relations Commission are also likely to improve
Home working became the norm for many of us during the pandemic. Photo: Stock image
Employees’ rights to request remote working are set to be strengthened following a review of new draft laws by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s department.
The Irish Independent has learned that key elements of the upcoming legislation on working from home, drawn up earlier this year, are now being overhauled.
Employers may be given fewer grounds to turn down applications for home working after the Department of Enterprise puts the finishing touches to the proposals.
Additionally, a worker’s right to appeal the decision to the Workplace Relations Commission is also likely to be bolstered.
Other changes being considered include reducing the amount of service a worker must have clocked up before they can submit a request.
The original draft says a worker should have to be 26 weeks in a job, but now this could be altered to 12 weeks’ service or even less.
The right to request remote working bill is expected to be published before Mr Varadkar returns to the role of Taoiseach in December. It is due to come into force next year.
Mr Varadkar has said the planned legislation “departs quite far” from the original outline.
Former Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary Patricia King has said the draft law had been “stacked in favour of the employer at every turn”.
Home working became the norm for almost one million workers during the pandemic.
Under the original proposals, an employer can refuse a request for home working on 13 grounds.
These include the fact that the nature of the work does not allow for it to be done remotely, a potential negative impact on performance, planned structural changes, the burden of additional costs and concerns about the suitability and connectivity of the proposed workspace.
The initial proposal allowed workers to appeal if an employer did not follow proper procedures when refusing – but not appeal the reason they refused.
The Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment said in a report in July that the grounds for refusal were “cumbersome and require change”. It noted the number of grounds employers had to refuse a request in similar legislation across Europe varied from five to eight. It said it was a concern that “very trivial cost issues could be offered” in a refusal on business grounds. It added that an unreasonable refusal should be open to challenge.
The committee recommended that remote working should include hybrid and flexible working.
Business group Ibec has called for a code of practice rather than legislation.
A department spokesperson said officials “are now working on progressing the legislation with the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee in mind”.
She said it was one of five new workers’ rights that Mr Varadkar prioritised during his term as minister.
“It remains the intention that the bill will be published later this year and progressed through the Oireachtas as quickly as possible,” she said.
“The right to request remote working bill is part of a broader Government vision to make remote working a permanent feature of Ireland’s workforce in a way that can benefit all economically, socially and environmentally.”
She added that the bill would provide for the first time a legal framework on which requesting, approving or refusing a request for remote work could be based.
13 reasons in draft law that employers could give in rejecting a remote-work request
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