Top Irish bosses split over right of staff to ask for remote working

Maura Quinn, chief executive of the Institute of Directors in Ireland, whose survey fpund that  35% of business leaders believe the bill fails to strike the right balance between the rights of employers and employees.

Ireland's top bosses are split over the merits of the proposed legislation that grants employees some rights to request to work from home and the office, according to the Institute of Directors (IoD).

The Government earlier this year proposed that its Right to Request Remote Working Bill would help both employees and employers to organise the return to working in offices following the Covid crisis while allowing staff the right to submit requests to work from home.

However, the IoD said its survey showed that 35% of business leaders believe the bill fails to strike the right balance between the rights of employers and employees, while 28% believe that it does so. 

"Furthermore, of the aforementioned 35% who believe it doesn’t balance the rights and requirements of both employees and employers, a large majority, 93%, thinks the Government should ‘go back to the drawing board’ with the bill and do a fuller and more detailed consultation with the relevant parties," the IoD said.   

“While some form of hybrid working has been adopted by many organisations since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is clear that it is too soon to tell how successful the model will be," said IoD chief executive Maura Quinn. 

“We live in uncertain and changing times, across a number of fronts, and it will surely take some time for some of the issues around remote and hybrid working – including the proposed legislation in this area – to be resolved," Ms Quinn said.

Many firms thought it is still too early to assess whether hybrid working arrangements were working well.