Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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It is not in any way clear from the legislation that it is referencing Spain or anywhere outside the jurisdiction. It relates to some sort of a unspecified distance requirement. The Department does see the difficulty with this. Workers could be working from just down the road. They could be working in the next building. They could live in the next building and choose to work remotely for whatever reason or want to work remotely. The employer can refuse it and the grounds of distance can be cited by the employer but then never be tested. There is no point in going to the WRC if it cannot test the reasons the person is being refused and only the fact the person has been refused. A worker could walk into an adjudication and the employer will say he or she has been reasonable and is not required to do anything else under the law. The worker will say it is unreasonable. The WRC then has to make an adjudication on the basis of the request only and not the reason for refusal. I welcome the fact the Department is looking at it. I will say again I regret the fact it was not looked at in advance.

I and many others have said there are better ways to make this work.

Given there are such long waits to get cases dealt with in the WRC, which everyone would acknowledge, and it is probably testament to the good work it does that people are queuing up to have their cases dealt with by it, does Mr. Mulligan accept that enforcement of the legislation is weak and needs to be strengthened? It would be helpful for any worker watching these proceedings to understand where the Department is coming from on this Bill. Given the waiting period and time involved, if it is accepted an employee could end up working in his or her work location for a year and a half while his or her appeal application for remote working is being considered, is the Department examining a way to speed up that process, or considering putting in place a clearing mechanism in place in advance of the legislation, or will it remain that an appeal would be referred to the WRC but additional tests of reasonableness may be added?