Ms Maeve McElwee:

When we look at the policies that organisations will put in place, they may well vary their terms. We know that there are organisations that already hire remotely. Some organisations will have had experience of hiring remotely during the pandemic and they may be well prepared to do that in the future. Lots of organisations might just make adjustments to the timelines or the level of interactivity they will want in order to support people who may have different and challenging needs when it comes to their labour market participation, as the Senator has outlined. The 26-week waiting period is typically there and it is protective for lots of employers because it provides them with the opportunity to get someone in, do induction and get them well settled within the organisation before they begin working remotely. It is not to say that an organisation could not accept a request earlier or that it could not reflect on a person's particular circumstances.

The 12-month period is also reasonable in circumstances where nothing else has changed. As I understand it from the Bill, an employee could not regularly submit requests to seek a right to remote working where the employer would then be obligated to undertake a formal process and write up a business case on every occasion. In larger and mid-size workplaces that could be become unfeasible and would become contentious because if nothing has changed, the likelihood is the employer will continue to refuse the request.