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Individuals will have the legal right to seek work from home in the future under the government’s plans to be announced on Friday.
The government says it will legislate to give employees the right to request their employer to allow them to work remotely. It will also introduce a new legally permissible code of practice on the right to disconnect from work, which will cover phone calls, emails and the time of disconnection.
The government has also proposed that working from home should be the norm for up to 20 percent of staff in the public service, but accepts that this is an average figure and could pose challenges in front-line areas such as healthcare.
The measures are part of a new teleworking strategy to be published on Friday by Tánaiste and Minister of Enterprise Leo Varadkar.
As part of the new initiative, the government will also explore accelerating the national broadband plan to make it easier for more people to work remotely, as well as to invest in more remote work centers that are close to daycare centers. There is also a plan to review the telecommuting treatment for taxes and expenses in the next budget.
Mr Varadkar said that “after the pandemic, I want telecommuting to be part of a whole new world of work, and this new government strategy sets out how we will enable it.”
“Working from home has become the norm for many in 2020. We want remote, blended and flexible work arrangements to be a much more important part of life after Covid. We have seen that there can be huge benefits: more flexibility, less travel, more time for family and friends. It’s better for transport emissions and for quality of life, but you have to do it right.
The new system is expected to go live before the end of this year.
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Mr Varadkar said that to facilitate more telecommuting, labor rights must be updated and the government must provide guidance and, in many cases, “provide a real physical workspace.”
He said it would also require a cultural shift in favor of facilitating it as an option.
Many people would want to continue doing at least some remote work after the pandemic, he added. It was very important for the Government to protect the rights and prerogatives of these workers so that they could “disconnect” from their jobs.
“The requirement to work from home whenever possible, for public health reasons, has demonstrated how feasible remote and combined work at home can be,” he noted.
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