The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is not happy with proposed legislation to give workers the right to request remote working.
(Source: Pixabay)The Irish Congress of Trade Unions claims government plans to allow workers the right to request to work remotely are “fatally flawed”.
It has told an Oireachtas Committee today that the legislation is "stacked in favour of the employer".
Opening statement by Patricia King, general secretary, Irish Congress of Trade Unions to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, on remote work legislation 'draft Bill stacked in favour of the employer', she said.https://t.co/xdeA6FfONg
— Irish Congress(ICTU) (@irishcongress) March 2, 2022
ICTU has particular concerns that employees cannot appeal their employer's decision, if their remote working application is rejected.
General Secretary of the ICTU Patricia King says employers cannot expect workers to go back to pre-pandemic routines:
"Getting up at stupid o'clock hours to get on trains, leaving children at 6 and half 6 in the morning in crèche, that is not a holistic way to live life.
"Quite candidly there weren't that many positives out of this pandemic but one of them was lifting the veil on some of that and showing what can be done."
Employer concerns
The employers' group Ibec has also appeared before the Oireachtas committee and has raised concerns about the proposed legislation.
It claims it could result in high costs and "complex considerations" for employers.
Director of Employer Relations Maeve McElwee says there are outstanding issues around privacy among remote workers:
"If you work for one of the big legal houses and the person you share your home with works for their biggest competitor, how is our data secure? How are conversations not overheard? How do I know you haven't left a document on the table, inadvertently?
"There are big issues for employers to consider [and] these have not been worked out in any way."
