Covid-19: Appeals to work from home 'not getting through'

Traffic on the N7 as gardaí carrying out inspections on travel restrictions. Picture: Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie

The Government has been urged to tackle employers who allow staff to needlessly attend workplaces during level 5 Covid-19 restrictions.

Public health guidance is that people "should work from home unless you are providing an essential service for which your physical presence is required". 

However, both the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and his deputy Dr Ronan Glynn said that message was "not getting through".

Dr Holohan said there was a "role for employers to play" in ensuring people do not come to work while sick.

"Basic public health advice at the moment is for people to stay at home, except in certain situations, like leaving the home for the purpose of essential work. 

Working from home — I think this message really hasn't gotten through.

"You look at the traffic and you look at what's going on in workplaces, people will tell you stories that car parks are full, canteens are full in workplaces — some people are really not listening to this message. And they're meeting up unnecessarily."

Broader Definitions 

At the Oireachtas Enterprise Committee on Wednesday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that while more people were back at work, this was due to a widening of the definition of essential work.

"There are definitely more people going to work now than in the original lockdown of March and April but there are many different reasons for that. 

"First, there is a wider definition of essential work and we now include construction, manufacturing, international trade and services and supply chains. 

Hundreds of thousands of more people are deemed essential, including those in childcare and education.

However, opposition politicians said there needed to be a greater focus on employers to ensure workers have safe, comfortable workplaces at home.

"Finger wagging" should stop

Sinn Féin's spokesperson for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Louise O'Reilly said that the "finger-wagging" at workers should stop.

"My read is that this is driven by employers. The finger-wagging from Nphet and government has to go both ways. The emphasis has to be on employers not to ask people to go to work when they don't have to."

Ms O'Reilly said that legislation was needed to allow the right to work from home unless it is absolutely not possible and for remote working to be recognised in the way shift work is.

"It's a specific and distinct type of work and needs to have the right to switch off and its own health and safety minimum standards."

Labour senator Marie Sherlock, who this week published a bill on working from home, said that the communications around guidelines needed to be less "punitive" but said that more needed to be done to make home workspaces viable.

"There has to be adequate provision for workers with regard to the home work station. 

There is a raft of health and safety laws in offices, but our bill would make that legal in the home.

"The second thing is that allowances are optional, so paying for heat and lighting and electricity are now on the home worker."