Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

General Scheme of the Right to Request Remote Work Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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The trade unions are also on board with the positive things here. When Mr. Mulligan talks about the balance in this, he is talking about business interests and business owners not being in favour of doing this. There is not much balance there. If you give the right of refusal to employers, you have not really given much of a right to workers. Workers can ask their employers for things today. They do not really need legislation to have the right to request something, and the current situation is that employers have the right to say no. Under the current heads, they will still have the right to say no. I ask Mr. Mulligan to expand on that point. Is he saying the Department has legal advice that it would be unconstitutional, for example, to give certain categories of workers the right to remote work? Is that why the Department is focused on this right to request?