Ms Patricia King:

We have not done a survey of public sector workers. There would be good reason for that.

The gradual return to the workplace in the public sector is only evolving as we speak, so it would be too early to do such a survey. I agree with Deputy Shanahan that not every job is conducive to remote working. I understand that. It is perfectly normal for employers to have rights in legislation. A bricklayer or somebody else working somewhere where the work has to be done on site cannot be at home doing that sort of work, so a rationale and a level of reasonableness have to come into this. The Deputy mentioned rhetoric. I hope this is a little more substantive than rhetoric. We will not be unreasonable about this but we do know that a considerable level of home-working could be done successfully. What we are saying is that if legislation is put in place, it should be made meaningful. As drafted, this legislation is not.