Legal right to request remote working to be delivered by end of the year

A plan by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s Enterprise department to introduce a revamped bill on the right to request remote working is likely to be scrapped.

It had been under review and was expected to come into force next year.

Instead, the new workers’ right will be delivered in minister Roderic O’Gorman’s Work Life Balance Bill by the end of the year, subject to cabinet approval.

Mr O’Gorman’s bill allows for parents of children under 12 and carers to apply for all forms of flexible work.

These include the right to request remote working, compressed working hours, split shifts and flexible start and finish times.

But an amendment to the bill is now expected that will allow all workers to request remote working.

It is also expected to streamline elements of the draft remote working legislation following extensive talks between government officials, union and employer representatives.

Measures being considered are a reduction in the 13 grounds employers would have to turn down applications for home working and changing the amount of service a worker would need to have before they could make a request.

A Department of Enterprise spokesperson said the original plan to have two separate bills is under review.

“The Government is currently considering the integration of provisions of the Right to Request Remote Working Bill into the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill,” the spokesperson said.

Marie Sherlock, Labour employment spokesperson, welcomed the move, but said there had been “huge Oir-eachtas time-wasting” on its right to request flexible work legislation.

Laura Bambrick, Irish Congress of Trade Unions social policy officer, said there has been lengthy consultation at the Labour Employer Economic Forum on making the proposed statutory right to request remote working “fit for purpose”.

She said the recommendation to deliver it in the work life balance bill is welcome in principle by Ictu.