In January 2021, the European Parliament published a proposed new directive on an EU-wide ‘right to disconnect’. Whilst it may be some time before we see progress on this at a European level, I wanted to progress at a national level our commitment in the Programme for Government to bring forward proposals on a right to disconnect.
In November 2020, I requested that the WRC prepare a draft Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect, in accordance with section 20 (2) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015. The WRC Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect was launched on 1st April 2021. It is too early to review its application, though I am open to doing so at a later stage.
Employers, employees, and their representative bodies find Codes of Practice particularly useful as reference points and they often serve as the basis for internal policies and procedures within firms and across sectors. While failure to follow a Code prepared under section 20(1)(a) of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 is not an offence in itself, section 20(9) provides that in any proceedings before a Court, the Labour Court or the WRC, a Code of Practice shall be admissible in evidence and any provision of the Code which appears to the court, body or officer concerned to be relevant to any question arising in the proceedings shall be considered in determining that question.
In tandem with the Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect my Department and the agencies under its remit are driving the implementation of actions under the National Remote Work Strategy. Each action in the Strategy has been attributed to lead actors across government for delivery and each action is scheduled to be delivered by the end of this year.
