Ms Patricia King:

I thank the Deputy. The usefulness of any piece of legislation when it is enacted can be measured by how many people are using it and how successful it is in the change it purports to achieve. You can see in the UK legislation that has not been great but there are much more fundamental things that need to be considered outside the targets. It is pointless saying to an employer you can refuse it on any grounds you like and then an employee says I disagree with you and think you are being unreasonable and the piece of legislation before us says you cannot take that and have any appeal on it. What we are looking at is useless in terms of an employee. The proposed legislation is giving every ground an employer can put forward as a reasonable reason to reject the request. That is as good as having no right to request it, if employers can refuse it on any grounds and that is what the current legislation says. When you take that position and the employee feels it is unreasonable, he or she then goes to the WRC and cannot cite the grounds for the refusal other than just three technical things.

The legislation we are looking at is a real missed opportunity. There is no hope of reaching any target because nothing will change. From our point of view, we must grasp this opportunity and move progressively into the new world of working post pandemic. That is not to say we should not have the interests of both the business and the worker in mind when putting legislation together. Of course the legislation has to be balanced. However, it is so unbalanced at this stage that it can only be described as useless. Neither of those provisions, as set out in the Bill, will improve the position of any worker seeking remote working. The only thing that will come of it is that workers might be heard and employers might have to listen but, other than that, employers face no obligations.