Employment Law Working from Home

Working from home legislation in Ireland arises derives from the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023.

Section 20 of the act states:

An employee may, in accordance with this Part, request approval from his or her employer for a remote working arrangement.

The request should be in writing, state the desired location, reasons for home working, and should be sent 8 weeks before the commencement date.

The employer can assess their own needs, the employees needs, approve or reject the request and they have a 4 week timeframe.

The employer must set out the reasons for a refusal.

If a dispute arises in the workplace whereby, for example, an employer refuses a request, the employee says the employer never considered their needs, just their own needs, a first port of call is to examine the employment contract.

There is no requirement in the law for an employer to favour an employees needs over their own.

Section 27(6) of the legislation states that an adjudications officer of the WRC cannot assess the merits of the employers decision.

There is also a Code Right to Request Remote Working ie code of practice which states :

Under the Act, neither an AO of the WRC nor the Labour Court have the legal power to assess the merits of any decision made by an employer in relation to [remote work]. This means that they cannot look behind the merits of the decision, they can only look at the process which led to the employer’s decision.

The code of practice can be seen here :

The power is in the employers hands in essence.

Cleary & Co. Solicitors, Litigation Law Firm Kieran Cleary and Roger Cleary Employment Law Solicitors can help with questions you may have regarding employment law matters and our numbers are (01) 546 1121 or  (052) 612 1999 or our email address is info@clearysolicitors.com