Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 March 2021
167. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the actions he has taken to prevent employers obliging employees to attend the workplace in circumstances in which remote working is a possibility in spite of current Covid-19 restrictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14820/21]
View answerWe are currently at Level 5 of the Government’s Plan for Living with Covid-19. The Plan clearly sets out that within this restriction level people should work from home unless it is absolutely necessary to attend in person for the delivery of an essential service as listed on www.gov.ie.
At the beginning of the year, I issued a statement underlining the seriousness of the issue and reminding employers to encourage and accommodate their employees to stay at home unless they are essential workers.
All employees should work from home where possible unless essential for them to attend their place of work, due to it being an essential health, social care or other essential service which cannot be done from home.
The responsibility for determining what work can be done remotely remains with the employer, but employers and workers should seek to resolve any matters relating to remote working at a local level through mutual dialogue and engagement. Where this is not possible and an employee is dissatisfied, a compliant may be made to the State's workplace relations services. Advice can be obtained from the Information & Customer Service of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) at Lo-call: 1890 80 80 90 or 059 9178990 or from its website www.wrc.ie.
It must be stressed, that at this particular critical juncture, given the seriousness of the overall situation with COVID-19 cases across the Community and the resulting pressure on our hospital systems, it is vital that employers make provision for employees to work from home unless they are delivering an essential service as listed on www.gov.ie and cannot work for home.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has produced a detailed guidance for both employers and employees in relation to home-working on a temporary basis during COVID-19 restrictions. This guidance will help employers to understand the requirements, and steps to take, when setting up working-from-home arrangements for employees from a health and safety perspective. The guidance is available on-line at www.hsa.ie.
While the HSA has no role in determining which employees can work from home or not, it carries out, along with a number of other State Agencies, compliance inspections with the precautionary measures of the Work Safely Protocol. Where non-compliance with the Protocol is discovered the HSA can use various enforcement mechanisms at its disposal to ensure that the necessary measures are put in place.
Any worker with concerns about health and safety standards at their place of work can contact the Health and Safety Authority’s Workplace Contact Unit (WCU) for detailed advice including advice on compliance with the Work Safely Protocol. The WCU can be contacted by phone at Lo-call 1890289389 (landline) or (01) 6147000 or by email at wcu@hsa.ie.
I would also like to highlight the fact that there is a wide range of Government supports available to help businesses impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Full details on financial supports, training and guidance are available on my Department’s website www.enterprise.gov.ie.
