Workplace wellbeing: What flexible working rights do carers and parents have?

New legislation allows carers and parents to request flexible working conditions. It's a win-win for employers and employees searching for a good work-life  balance

Pic: iStock

WORKERS in Ireland gained new rights when the Work-Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill passed in the Oireachtas on March 30. All employees can now request remote working, and parents and carers can request flexible working.

There were two main drivers for introducing this new legislation, says Dr Laura Bambrick, head of social policy and employment affairs at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). The first is the need to comply with new EU law which gives working parents and carers the right to request flexible working.

“The EU wants member states to do more to help workers balance their work and family lives, to encourage men to be more involved in providing care, and to support more women to remain in employment,” she says. “This bill is Ireland’s response to that.”

The second driver, says Bambrick, was the ICTU campaign to give workers the right to request remote working. “We wanted to bring Irish workers’ rights into line with what is a long-established right in most EU member states, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.”

While the new legislation
represents a step forward for Irish employment law, some progressive companies are already several steps ahead, offering ‘radical flexibility’, or individualised working arrangements that suit them and their employees.

Laura Bambrick

Karen O’Reilly is the founder of flexible work specialists and recruiters EmployFlex and EmployMum. As an advocate for increased flexibility in the workplace, she is eager to explain what it means.

“I don’t want the word ‘radical’ to frighten people as this way of working isn’t subversive or extreme in any way,” she says. “It can mean working split shifts, compressed hours, four-day weeks, or myriad alternatives. When done right, it can have huge benefits for employers and employees.”

It seems to be what employees want in this post-pandemic work environment. According to the Trends in Post-PUP Employment paper published in April 2022, 45% of Irish workers returning to employment changed jobs. That’s a vast number of people on the move.

Search for flexibility

Research shows the search for flexibility was one of the motivators. In a study of 820 people across Ireland carried out by EmployFlex in 2019, 93% reported that, all things being equal, they would switch jobs if more flexibility were offered in another role.

“Every single study we have undertaken in the past six years shows that employees want more flexibility in the workplace,” says O’Reilly.

It’s a similar story internationally. The EY Future Consumer Index 2022 asked 17,000 employees to list their top considerations for a new role and 32% chose flexibility in where and when they worked.

Jacob Eisenberger, an associate professor at the UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business who specialises in organisational behaviour, believes many of us struggle to balance the competing roles we have to fulfil.

“Our work role often comes at the expense of our non-work roles and this can lead to chronic stress, feelings of guilt and incompetence, and a compromised personal life,” he says.

Having the flexibility to shape our work schedule around the rest of our lives can make a huge difference, especially for parents and carers. 

“It reduces stress, allows for more quality time with family and friends, and benefits society in terms of happier employees, parents and families,” says Eisenberg.  “In the case of parents and carers, flexible working arrangements allow them to pursue jobs and career progression without compromising their desire to be active in their parenting or caring.”

Because women still shoulder most of the caring responsibilities in a family, such flexibility could be most beneficial for them. “The gender pay gap and the gender gap is partially a result of women leaving the workplace when they have children because they aren’t allowed the flexibility to work around their family’s needs,” says O’Reilly.

“Flexibility in the form of reduced hours and hybrid and remote working could help keep women and carers in the workplace. It could help to counteract discrimination against older people, people with disabilities and neurodiverse employees too. It may not be a silver bullet, but
offering an authentically flexible work environment can go a long way to levelling the playing field.”

Eisenberg has personal experience of how an employer’s flexibility can enhance an employee’s life. 

“When my son’s mother moved to the US, I had to raise him from 12 to 19, mostly on my own,” he says. “One of the main factors that allowed me to cope with this was that I was able to build most of my work schedule as a lecturer around his schedule. Both of us benefited and I felt higher job satisfaction and commitment to my organisation as a result. I am now in my 20th year at UCD.”

His story shows how being flexible can also be an advantage for employers. Research in a 2019 flexible-work study [exa.mn/flexible-work] found that, like Eisenberg, employees who believed they had a choice over how they worked reported higher job satisfaction and commitment to their organisation.

“We can therefore predict they will experience less turnover,” says Eisenberg. “Other studies show a link between flexible working practices and lower absenteeism, which is another benefit for companies.”

Jacob Eisenberg

Talent pool

There’s also the fact that employers offering flexible working arrangements can attract talent from a bigger talent pool. “That’s a massive advantage in this tight labour market,” says O’Reilly.

Ictu’s Bambrick hopes the new legislation will be expanded upon in the future. “Flexible working is good for workers and their families, good for businesses which get to retain valuable highly trained staff, good for society and good for the economy,” she says.

“It will help us close the gender care, pay and pensions gaps. It’s a win-win. The current legislation will be reviewed in two years to consider whether the right to request flexible working should be extended to all employees regardless of their caring responsibilities. We in the trade union movement will continue to campaign for that. Flexible working is the future of work.”

Jimmy Sheehan

For companies like Contracting Plus, which has offices in Cork, Dublin, and India, flexible working already exists. “Our business supports independent workers like freelancers and contractors in running their business by helping them with administrative tasks like bookkeeping, payroll, and pensions,” says managing director Jimmy Sheehan.

“Because we’re a company that focuses on individuals, we have extended that to our employees. We try to measure and match what they need with our business needs while also ensuring we remain efficient and commercially viable.”

This means they have some employees who work half-days, part-time, or compressed hours, and others who work staggered hours, starting and finishing at different times than their colleagues. “There is any number of variations,” says Sheehan.

This approach appears to be successful. “A business is run and managed by people and we have seen that if those people are trusted and allowed to have autonomy in how they work, they feel better and deliver better,” says Sheehan. “It’s a self-fulfilling circle of positivity.”

It impacts retention levels too. “A huge percentage of our staff have been with us for a long time,” says Sheehan.

However, for it to benefit everyone, it has to be carefully managed. “We can’t allow it to become a free-for-all,” says Sheehan.

“But by improving our communications, introducing things like anchor days every month when everyone is expected to be on-site, and asking teams to agree on core days when everyone has to be in the office, we are showing that it’s possible for flexible working to meet everyone’s needs.”