Ministers meet today (25/01/2022) to discuss legislation to make it a legal right for employees to request working remotely.
Employers will be given a wide-ranging list of reasons to refuse requests from employees to work from home under new legislation to be agreed by Cabinet.
A memo on the new legislation drafted by Tanaiste Leo Varadkar’s Department of Enterprise outlines 13 examples of grounds for refusals of requests for remote working.
Mr Varadkar has already faced criticism from the Opposition for only making it legal for employees to make a request to work from home rather than giving them a statutory right to work from home.
Yesterday, the Fine Gael leader shot down a proposal by the Labour Party that employers should have the right to work from home rather than just the right to request to work from home.
Mr Varadkar said the Government cannot interfere in contracts between employers and employees.
He also said there will be some industries such as education, healthcare and hospitality where remote working will not be possible.
Now it has emerged the detailed list of reasons for refusing requests range employers raising concerns about the financial impact on their business to concern about confidential and intellectual property.
Employers can also turn down requests if they have concerns about where an employee is planning to work remotely.
This can include concerns over internet activity in an area and they can refuse requests on the grounds that a person’s home is too far away from their workplace.
The legislation notes that the reasons for turning down requests are not limited to the 13 examples outlined in the new law which will go before the Dáil shortly.
The Full List Of Reasons For Turning Down A Request Is:
- The nature of the work not allowing for the work to be done remotely
- Cannot organise work among existing staff
- Potential impact on quality
- Potential negative impact on performance
- Planned structural changes
- Burden of additional costs, taking into account the financial and other costs entailed and the financial resources of the employer’s business
- Concerns re the protection of business confidentiality or intellectual property rights
- Concerns re the suitability of the proposed workspaces on health and safety grounds
- Concerns re the suitability of the proposed workspaces on data protection grounds
- Concerns re the internet connectivity of proposed remote working location
- Inordinate distance between the proposed location and on-site location
- If the proposed remote working arrangement conflicts with the of applicable collective agreement
- Ongoing or recently concluded formal disciplinary processes
(Source – Irish Independent – News – Philip Ryan – 25/01/2022)