Following the introduction by Minister Simon Coveney of the new Code of Practice, making and managing requests for flexible work and remote work, the work-life balance rights for workers have been strengthened.
The new Code of Practice, developed by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and social partners will now guide employers, employees and their representatives through the request process in compliance with new law and best practice principles.
Owen Reidy, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), said: “Making it easier for people to combine their professional and personal life through greater flexibility on when and where they work is good for workers and families. It is good for businesses who get to retain valuable and often highly trained staff. It is good for society and for the economy too. It will help close the gender gaps in employment, care, pay and pensions. Everyone wins.
“That is why the Congress Private Sector Committee was first to call on Government to bring Ireland into line with long-established employment law across EU and other English-speaking countries by putting in place a legal framework for making and managing requests to work flexibly and remote.”
ICTU’s Social Policy Officer Dr Laura Bambrick said: “While workers have always had a right to ask their boss for a change in the hours they work, the times they work or their place of work, the Work Life Balance Act and the Code of Practice ends the situation where requests can be ignored or dismissed out of hand for no good reason.
“Employers are now required to take account of the worker’s needs and the requirements of the new Code of Practice in addition to the needs of the business when considering a request and any changes that might later be sought or made to an agreed arrangement.”
ICTU’s General Secretary Owen Reidy added: “Our cross-union ‘Make Remote Work!’ campaigning group welcomes the improvements to and commencement of these new workers’ right, after a previous false dawn. I want to acknowledge their tireless work and the work of the former Minister for Employment now Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the Minister for Equality Roderic O’Gorman and their officials to bring us to this point.”
