Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The idea that people can work from home is, of course, something we have had for many years and some people have been doing it for a long time. However, in recent times, because of Covid, it has become one of the main things that people are doing. Many people find that it works well for them but many find that it does not work well for them. I am slightly out of breath because I was racing to get here. Perhaps I should have done the speech from home as well. I know about this because my son has been working from home for the past number of months and it has worked very well, but today he is in Dublin. He comes to Dublin one day a week. That is the kind of thing that people need to be able to do. They need to have flexibility. I think everyone wants to have flexibility and to be able to do this in a way that will work for them and their families. However, there has to be a way that we protect workers’ rights. It is important that people can have a system that ensures their rights as employees can be maintained. They have the right to be part of a union and they have the right to bargain. The employer cannot put pressure on them to do the things that have been so much of a problem in the past in the conventional way that we have worked. We do not want to see the rights that have been so hard fought for and won in the conventional workspace being lost because people are now choosing to work from home and using that particular model of work.

Another issue that I have come across and is an important part of it, as Deputy O’Reilly mentioned, is in regard to the salaries that people are offering. I have recently come across a situation where a young man looking for work and he applied for a job in a particular line of work and was offered it. However, when he got the contract, the salary scale on it, because he would be working from home or a hub, was dropped by almost €9,000 per year from what others were getting for doing the exact same work because he was not going to have to go to Dublin for the job, in this capital city, where most people have to go to work, particularly in the type of employment he is in. There needs to be some way of ensuring that we introduce legislation to prevent this from happening. Rates of pay have to be maintained and the rights that people have must be maintained. We must ensure the workplace, wherever it is, is a place where people are protected. People must know that they can have a proper means of delivering not just for themselves and their families, but also for the future of the whole community. Many communities depend on working from home and working in hubs to-----

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