Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Ó Ríordáin. I welcome and will support the motion. If the Government were to read the wording properly, it would see it "rejects as inadequate the Government proposals in the general scheme of the Right to Request Remote Work Bill, on the grounds that they: fail to provide that access to flexible work should be the default entitlement and not the exception; [and] fail to include a presumption that if work has been done remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic it is reasonably practicable for it to continue to be done remotely". What we are arguing for, and what is the unanimous approach of the Opposition, is to reflect the fact there has been a paradigm shift in society, which has had a major benefit, not least for women.

I might give the practical example of a woman who works in the pharmaceutical sector. She is a lone parent, highly skilled and educated. Earlier in the Covid pandemic, she obtained a promotion. Her employer now says she is expected to work overnight shifts in other parts of the country. Given she received a promotion during the pandemic when she was able to take care of her childcare responsibilities, surely she should have a right to continue to work as she has been doing and not to have to work those overnight shifts. There is a risk she will now have to leave that job because she will not be able to make alternative childcare arrangements. All we are trying to do is to instil a presumption in favour of the right to have a flexible arrangement. If nothing else, it is to ensure lone parents, in particular, who want to work but who cannot do so at present because of their childcare arrangements will be given that opportunity to be able to do so, such as in the case of the person I mentioned.

The Government's legislation, with all due respect to the Minister of State, will yank that out of the equation. It is too weak. The paradigm shift has occurred, as he will have seen on his commute to the Houses of the Oireachtas from wherever he resides, as will the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, when he travels along the M4. They will see that people are back on the road, going to work. The whole place is snarled up and many of those people would be just as productive if working from home or having that flexibility, but the Government's legislative proposal is too weak. We argue that the Bill fails to live up to the ambitions of the remote work strategy published last year. The Government has watered it down. Let us give women, in particular, and men a chance. I refer to women who have attained some autonomy, been able to come back into the workplace and achieved promotions, and who otherwise would not have been promoted because of that pull towards the need to provide childcare and the domestic arrangements they may have. Let us give them a chance and embed it as a right. Female full-time employment increased by an impressive 7.5% in the two-year period between the end of 2019 and the end of 2021. That was as a result of the pandemic because people were able to make more flexible arrangements.

All we are asking for is a bit of common sense. There is a significant opportunity to reflect the zeitgeist. People want flexible working time, instilled as a right, and our motion speaks to that.

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