Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 13:

In page 13, line 2, after “arrangements” to insert “including”.

All the amendments in my name in this group make the same point. I will talk about the Title first. I do not believe the Bill at any point stipulates the kinds of working arrangements that might be available. Much emphasis has been put on remote working over recent years for obvious reasons. Remote working is only one part of flexible working; there are many others. Without reference to the types of possible flexible working arrangements, people will not know what to ask for. For instance, it can be core working hours, flexible hours or compressed hours. Does any part of the Bill spell out what flexible working arrangements actually are?

It is great that this is being offered to carers and parents. While we are making it easier for them, we are not challenging the status quothat it is normally women who take parental leave and who will request flexible working arrangements. In 2020, Permanent TSB carried out a survey which indicated that 33% of men and 22% of women would not take parental leave as they would be concerned about it damaging their career progression. The level of uptake of parental leave is extremely low. Even in my old job in advertising and marketing, taking parental leave was unheard of; people just did not do it. I have always been of the view that flexible working arrangements should not just be for parents and carers; it should be for employees. That is how we change the culture.

Without having reference to the types of flexible working arrangements available, how can we communicate to people that they will now have the option of doing this? How will they know? How might employers know how to manage it when employees come to ask? It is asking a lot of people for them to know themselves, for example, that they can ask for compressed hours when the culture is not there for such hours. Other countries' legislation has standardised types of flexibility. For instance, Finland has core working hours and predominantly for office workers it has compressed hours. It has flexible hours and it has remote working hours.

As has been discussed throughout, it is an ideological debate at this stage. Is it for parents and carers or can it be for all workers? I am still in the persuasion mode I am hoping that it can be expanded to all employees.