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EMPLOYEES WILL HAVE the legal right to request remote work under the new legislation the government plans to introduce this year.
Tánaiste and the Minister for Business, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, will today publish Ireland’s first national telecommuting strategy to make telecommuting a permanent option for life after the pandemic.
Under the new plans, a legally permissible code of practice on the right to disconnect from work will be introduced this year, covering phone calls, emails and disconnection time.
The government will also promote combined work, allowing people more flexibility in choosing when and where to work.
It will also invest in remote work centers to ensure they are in locations that accommodate travelers and are close to child care facilities.
With more people choosing to stay home and work, the government will also explore the possibility of accelerating the rollout of the National Broadband Plan.
Tax review
The government is also committed to reviewing the treatment of telework for tax and spending purposes in time for the upcoming October budget.
In an attempt to lead by example, the Tánaiste plans to require that home and remote work be the norm for 20% of public sector employees.
All of these actions will be completed in the course of 2021, and an implementation group will soon be established that will meet every four months to monitor the progress of the plan.
Varadkar said the pandemic has taken a terrible toll on life and livelihoods in Ireland.
“We all hope and pray for the day that it will end, not so that we can go back to the old normal, but so that we can have a new and better normal incorporating everything we have learned from living our lives and doing business in a very different.
“The requirement to work from home whenever possible, for public health reasons, has shown how feasible remote and combined work at home can be. After the pandemic, I want remote working to be part of a whole new world of work and this new government strategy sets out how we will enable it. “
While working from home has become the norm for many in 2020, Varadkar says he wants remote, blended and flexible work arrangements to be a much more important part of life after Covid.
“We have seen that there can be enormous benefits: more flexibility, less travel, more time for family and friends. It is better for transport emissions and for quality of life, but you have to do it right, “he said.
However, if you want to continue working at home, Varadkar says that labor rights will need to be updated.
“We need to provide guidance and in many cases we need to provide a real physical workspace. It also requires a cultural shift in favor of facilitating it as an option. This plan shows how we will put all of those parts together. I think it will make a real difference in people’s work lives, ”he said.
Speaking on the subject last year, the Tánaiste referred to surveys that indicated that around 10% to 20% of employees were eager to get back to the office as soon as possible.
Another 10% to 20% would like to work from home permanently, he said, while most employees want a mixed job, a few days at the office and a few days at home or a few days at a remote facility.
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Turning off
Varadkar said that many people will want to continue to do at least remote work after the pandemic, and said that it is really important that the government protects the rights and prerogatives of those workers so that they can still ‘disconnect’ from work.
“That is why we have included the right to disconnect part. We want to implement the structures that ensure that we take advantage of the benefits of remote work and protect ourselves against the disadvantages, ”he said.
The initiative was introduced in France in 2017 and required companies with more than 50 employees to develop a charter defining the right of employees to disconnect and establishing the hours when staff are not supposed to send or reply to emails. .
Italy, Spain and Belgium have also implemented such legislation.
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