Remote working: Unions accuse Government of trying to 'fob off' workers with review

The Labour Party also said: 'There is no credible evidence that forcing people back into offices improves performance.'

Critics have have called for legislation to be reformed to ensure a right to remote working. File picture

Unions have accused the Government of trying to "fob off" workers on the right to remote working, after the enterprise minister claimed it will improve its code of practice in the area.

Following a mandatory review under the legislation, Peter Burke defended the Government’s approach and said he would recommend the code be revised to ensure employers give comprehensive and transparent reasons for their remote working decisions.

“The legislation is only two years old on March 6,” Mr Burke told RTÉ radio. “One million people across our economy are now utilising remote working. We want to strengthen that.

“We're going to strengthen the code of practice, and also we're going to support people by improving infrastructure and how they can claim expenses and deductions by doing that. 

"That's where the Government is very much working hand in glove with employers and employees to support them to have a better quality of life and better time with their families.” 

Right to remote working

Critics have long been sceptical of the Government’s policy in this area, claiming that by only giving employees a right to request remote working means that companies can simply ignore these requests.

Instead, they have called for legislation to be reformed to ensure a right to remote working.

Laura Bambrick, social policy officer at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), said the Government’s review was out of touch with reality.

“This two-year review was a requirement of the act, included at the insistence of unions to ensure the legislation is fit for purpose, following a failed first attempt by the department to legislate and a very public backlash requiring them to start over,” she said.

“The review’s ‘too soon to tell’ conclusion on whether the act needs amending confirms what unions strongly suspected going into the evaluation process — it was being done to tick a box so that the issues around access to remote can be put to bed.” 

Mr Burke said from their review, it is apparent there is a huge lack of awareness about the right to request remote work, and that is something he wanted to improve on.

“I want to work with employer groups and employee groups to help improve it,” he said of the code of practice in this area.

Ms Bambrick said those who responded to the review in good faith wouldn’t be “fobbed off” with an awareness-raising campaign from the Government, and tweaks to its existing code of practice on remote working.

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“The genie is out of the bottle on remote working,” she added. “For too many, their right, as currently legislated, is failing to deliver, as the close to 0% success rate for Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) cases taken by employees makes abundantly clear.” 

Labour’s George Lawlor also hit out at the Government, accusing it of failing to take meaningful action to promote and protect remote working.

“The update to the code of practice will ultimately mean more work for HR practitioners to come up with language to justify an employer's decision to refuse requests for remote work,” the Wexford TD said.

“There is no credible evidence that forcing people back into offices improves performance.”