Employees may have the legal right to apply for work from home, says Tánaiste

TÁNAISTE LEO VARADKAR has said the government is seeking to give people the legal right to apply for remote work in their employment.

The Minister of Enterprise spoke this afternoon in the announcement of 700 new jobs by the parcel company DPD.

When asked if enough is being done to encourage employers to make it easier for staff to work from home, Varadkar said a public consultation is being organized to look at the issue.

“I know when we started developing our strategy on remote work we were thinking how can we encourage people to do this, in a way now the question is how are we going to encourage people to come back to the office, when that is possible. again, “he said.

Varadkar added that, from his point of view, what many people want is a mixed form of work, where they can work from home, in the office or in a “remote hub” on different days.

The kind of things we are considering is giving people the legal right to apply for work from home or remote work, it doesn’t mean they get it, but the right to apply.

“Also this whole issue of the right to disconnect, because I don’t think anyone wants our house to become our full-time workplace, so that’s a problem too.”

Announcing tighter Covid-19 restrictions on Wednesday, Taoiseach Michéál Martin said that if more people work from home, it will have an impact on the rate of transmission of the virus.

“Time to go back to remote work. We know it works. It is possible and it would have a very significant impact on reducing transmission rates in our opinion, ”he said.