Louise O'Reilly
Question:1. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when the code of practice for remote working will be published. [51452/23]
View answerThursday, 23 November 2023
Questions (1)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
This is a fairly straightforward question. I want an indication on when the code of practice for remote working will be published. It will give businesses and workers a bit of clarity. There is concern that working patterns are starting to be formed in its absence and people are concerned they may have to change back.
It is a very fair question and I am glad to put on the record how this is developing. The right to request remote working has been integrated into the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023, which was led by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and was enacted on 4 April 2023. The provisions of the Act pertaining to the right to request remote working are contained in Part 3 of the Act and have not yet been commenced.
All employees will have a right to request remote working under the Act. The right to request the other elements of a flexible working arrangement, such as adjusted working patterns or reduced hours, will remain limited to parents and carers as defined in the work life balance Act, though there is provision in the Act for this to be reviewed every second year.
A code of practice is being developed which will provide practical guidance to employers and employees on dealing with requests under the new law. Employers will be obliged to have regard to the statutory code of practice when considering applications for flexible and remote working arrangements. Employees will be able to refer a dispute to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, where an employer fails to have regard to the code of practice and their obligations under the Act.
Work on the development of the code of practice is ongoing in the WRC. Since a public consultation closed in June of this year, the WRC has reviewed the 51 submissions received, as well as other relevant policy documentation, research and best practice as part of finalising a working draft code. A working group has been established and is attended by representatives from ICTU and IBEC. To date, four meetings have taken place at the WRC on the code. This working group meets regularly to have a robust code of practice published as soon as possible. The WRC is independent in carrying out its functions and consults with the social partners in the preparation of such codes. While no formal date has been set, I hope the code could be completed by the end of January. To give the Deputy a straight answer to her question, I expect it in the next six to eight weeks.
That would be very welcome but this has been subject to a fair amount of delay. The Government's first attempt at it was 13 reasons to say "No" to remote working. This obviously had to be put to one side because clearly it was not going to work. In September 2021, I was told by the then Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment that the general scheme of the Bill was imminent and that legislative underpinning for remote working would be a reality in a short time. I am patient but really this has been going on for a very long time. It is starting to cause concern. The concern is arising from employers and workers. I have met business owners and trade union representatives in recent weeks. The concern is that work patterns are developing, or that there are people who want to develop a work pattern who are being told they must wait until this code of practice is published. I welcome the fact the Minister believes it will be published in January. Perhaps he could give me a little more assurance that we will see it in the next six to eight weeks.
The important thing is that we get this right. This legislation was only enacted in April this year. It has not been going on for a very long time. The Deputy knows how the WRC works on something as complex as this, although it is not that complicated to be fair. It wants to build consensus between the two sides so that the code of practice is robust and makes a real difference to people's lives in terms of a request of an employer for remote working options. It wants to make sure that employers will respond as we expect and hope they will. The important thing is to get it right.
There are also time considerations. If we can get this done before the end of January, it will be good work. It is very new in terms of industrial relations. This is a good and very progressive provision that will contribute to changing work practices but we have to make sure that it works. I will not rush the WRC on this but I expect that by the end of January we will have clarity and, I hope, a new code of practice that will be in operation at that stage.
It is not fair to say this started with the work life balance Bill because it did not. It started with the Department's failed attempt to bring in a code of practice that then got subsumed into the work life balance Bill. It has been going on for quite a while. As I said, in September 2021, I was told the code of practice was imminent and that the legislative underpinning of it would be imminent. It is not for me but for others that I ask. It is not that new. It is part of an evolution in working time and working patterns. It used to be called teleworking, then e-working and then working from home and remote working. It is part of an evolution that is happening in the workplace anyway. The difficulty is that it is happening without guidance. I want to impress on the Minister the need for this to be done sooner rather than later. I appreciate that it has to be done right but a considerable amount of time has been given to it. I hope we will see it in the next few weeks.
I accept it is not new that employees ask for facilitation around work-life balance, remote working and flexible working. Covid accelerated an awful lot of this but it was happening even before Covid to a certain extent. What is new is the provision in law for an employee to request remote working options and for an employer to have a legal obligation to respond seriously to this.
When you put something in legislation you want to make sure it works. Both contributors to this debate, ICTU and IBEC, if you want to refer to them as contributors, as well as others liked the idea of having clarity through a WRC recommended code of conduct or practice. We are moving in that direction. I accept we are now at the end of the process so people want to get on with it - so do I. I do not think we are going to have to wait much longer. Given that Christmas is on the way, we are talking about having this finalised in the next couple of months.