Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is true that anyone can request of his or her employer the option of working at home but it is not a legal right in the sense that I mean it. At the moment, people can request term time or flexible hours, which is kind of what I have in mind in setting out a legal framework whereby people could request remote working of their employer and the employer would have to consider it properly and give reasons. Presumably the employee would then be able to take the matter further if he or she were not happy with the response. That is the kind of right we are talking and thinking about. From the research we have done on people who are in jobs where there is remote working, roughly 10% to 15% are dying to get back to the office. That may be for all sorts of reasons. It could be related to personality or because the person is living in a crowded apartment. About 15% are keen to stay at home and work from home all the time. A good 70% want blended working and that is the way of the future. I would like to create a legal framework around it so that employees have some legal basis and legal backing when they request remote working. That does not mean we can force employers to do it. Nobody is looking for that but we need a framework which gives employees some backing if they make such a request.

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