Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We thank very much all the Deputies across the House who will support the motion and we commend the work of Senator Sherlock, who, on having examined the Government's proposals, committed to producing her own legislation, which she is now pursuing. The Government's proposals, which would require employees to wait up to 26 weeks before they could ask to work remotely and a further 12 weeks before a decision is made, that is, a full pregnancy of 38 weeks before an employee might actually be given the right, go to the heart of all workers' rights legislation in this Republic. A worker has the right to ask, but it will always be the employer's right to say "No". It feels as though the Government handed its legislation to IBEC and asked it to script it, and then presented it to the House and was surprised people would have an issue with it. We had a round-table discussion, organised by Senator Sherlock, at which we heard from Orla O'Connor of the National Women's Council of Ireland, Liam Berney of ICTU, Louise Bayliss of SPARK, Gareth Murphy of the Financial Services Union, Fleachta Phelan of the Disability Federation of Ireland, and Alan Eustace, all of whom argued that we need to grasp this opportunity that has been presented to us during the pandemic.

We are not suggesting a young worker will not want to go into the workplace. I can appreciate that somebody who is starting out in life may have housing or accommodation difficulties whereby working from home may not really be an option for him or her, given that person may not wish to grasp the opportunity of working at the end of the bed, for example. If, however, a worker in good faith has the opportunity to work from home, why do we once again have to place all the power in the hands of the employer? It is as though there is a lack of trust at the heart of Irish legislation such that the worker will always try not to be honest. If we are honest with ourselves as a legislative body, however, we will appreciate that the productivity of the worker would improve if he or she did not have to run on this treadmill of traffic congestion and rush and push in the morning and of having to deal with childcare arrangements.

Indeed, this is a gender equality issue, given it will encourage more women into the workplace and to seek empowerment there too. Furthermore, it goes hand in hand with the right to switch off. It cannot be that in Irish workplaces, whether at home or in the traditional work setting, workers must be constantly contactable, whereby they do not have the right to switch off and are expected to receive a message or email at any hour of the day or night.

We are trying to expose the fact that what the Government has brought forward in this right to flexible working legislation is actually the right of an employer to say "No". There are 38 weeks before a worker can get a decision. The reasons for refusal are so wide as to make the workers powerless. In good faith the Labour Party has been working assiduously on this. Senator Sherlock, as our workers' rights spokesperson, has been drafting legislation. She had correctly pointed out the issues in the legislation. A number of weeks ago, the Tánaiste told me some employers were not happy with the Bill either. It is quite clear nobody on either side, workers or employers, is necessarily impressed with the Government's legislation. We cannot have a situation where somebody has to wait 26 weeks before applying to work remotely. We cannot have a ridiculous situation where people have to wait 12 weeks to get an answer. We cannot have the employers' rights of refusal to be so broad as to make the legislation worthless. As my colleague Deputy Sherlock has said, it is a gender equality issue and it is a workers' rights issue.

It is about taking from the pandemic all we have learned and bringing it into the mainstream of the workplace and workers' rights. I hope the Taoiseach and representatives from the Government might listen to this. My greatest regret of ten years ago at the time of the previous crisis is that we did not learn enough from the financial collapse and build a more robust economy on the basis of workers' rights and human interaction. Having learned from what happened in the pandemic, we have an opportunity to do things much better. This is why we have tabled the motion. We do not want the Government just to support the motion; we want it to work on it and make the legislation better.

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