Ms Maeve McElwee:

We agree with the Senator regarding every small business needing to have a policy in place. It does seem entirely disproportionate. There are many very small employers and businesses where there is no reality to people working remotely because of the nature of the work they provide. To make it a criminal offence to not have a policy in place that would be reissued every 12 months seems disproportionate in the extreme. I agree with ICTU on the issue of health and safety. We have sought more clarification on a number of occasions around the issues that will pertain to home working and the obligations and responsibilities on both parties in that case. It is very important that we get more clarity on that before we finalise this legislation. Those pieces are particularly important.