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THE GOVERNMENT AND health officials have this week been encouraging people who return to working from home if they can.
Under Level 3 of the government’s Living With Covid-19 document, employees are encouraged to work from him if they can. Under Level 4, which currently applies to Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, only essential workers should go to work.
The National Public Health Emergency Team has recommended the entire country move to Level 5 for six weeks. This would mean another prolonged period of remote working for employees who had returned to their workplaces after the first lockdown.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan this week said he was concerned at the number of people who had returned to their workplaces when their jobs could still be done at home.
He said this can contribute to increased numbers using public transport and also in-person mixing between coworkers that could be avoided. Minister for Higher Education
Simon Harris, speaking to RTÉ’s Today with Clare Byrne earlier this week, made an appeal to employers to “show the leadership they showed in March and April” and allow their employees to work remotely, if their work could be done from home.
He said the government would be engaging with business representative groups on it. “The rule needs to be quite straightforward; if you can do your job from home, your employer should try and facilitate you in doing that.”
Yesterday Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said the government is looking at giving workers a right to request to work remotely.
He said this does not necessarily mean they would have to be allowed to work from home, but it would be a legal right to make the request.
So let’s look at your current rights. We spoke to employment law solicitor Richard Grogan about the barriers to remote working, both for workers and their companies.
In most cases, they don’t.
Grogan said some contracts may provide for flexible working, but most will state that you will work at a location and if the employer says that is their office then you are required to work from there if you want to get paid.
Even if you decided not to go in and fully and adequately completed all of your duties for the day from home, the employer would still not be legally obliged to pay you.
And of course if your job requires you to be at the workplace in order to carry it out – such as factory work or retail – it would not be possible to work from home.
There are genuine problems with working from home. Companies may not have proper mobile IT, the laptops staff are using may not have proper security, there could be huge GDPR and security breach issues.
“Say if you’re an accounts person, you may not have the protections on your laptop to allow you access to the accounts,” he explained. Issues can also occur if an employee is viewing personal documentation in their homes that could be seen or accessed by the people they live with.
“Obviously we all understand the health imperative to work from home but there is also a knock-on effect on other workers,” Grogan said.
“If businesses have people at home for the next six weeks, the canteen staff are gone, the cleaner who cleans every day is not needed and is now out of a job, the person who works as a barista in the coffee shop down the road has no customers.”
Grogan said companies also have to look at their exposure in terms of insurance. They are obliged to provide a proper workplace with, for example, a sufficient desk and chair in an office setting. If they are unable to provide a similar set-up in a person’s home, they could be open to claims if an employee develops back problems.
“Litigation solicitors will be looking at what claims workers can make, if somebody has an accident at home during work hours and there was no risk assessment, it could cause an issue for the employer.”
It’s unlikely, Grogan said:
“If he’s going to bring it in he better provide smelling salts to every employment lawyer in the country because they’ll need them to get off the floor laughing. It’s incredible to give someone the right to ask for something. You can already do that.”
Workers can ask to be allowed to work home and while there is no obligation to consider or grant the request, thousands of employers across the country have facilitated remote working.
Grogan said giving people a right to ask to work from home without also giving them a right to work from home would be “pointless” and will lead to people believing they have rights that they do not actually have.
“For it to be serious, there’d have to be a whole mechanism to work out what circumstances it is ‘possible’ for an employee to work from home and then you’d also have to indemnify employers.
“And you’d still have the GDPR issues and the security issues and the rest to contend with. If the employers were to be forced to do it, they might look at it and think it’s just not possible and lay those people off instead.”
Grogan said many companies who moved to remote working during the first lockdown were “just making it work short-term” and do not have a longterm plan worked out. He said it would be more helpful for employers and workers if the government gave detailed guidance and more practical supports to facilitate longer term flexibility.
If the country does move to Level 5 next week, the advice will be to work from home unless it is for work in health, social care or other essential services and cannot be done from home.
While this is stronger advice than at Level 3, some companies – particularly those who had issues with remote working earlier this year – may still decide to tell their employees to come to work and if they want to get paid, those workers will have to turn up.
Not everybody wants to work from home, I worked from home since the start of the pandemic until August sitting in a one bedroom apartment with no proper ergonomically setup desk. Now am forking out for physio to try and fix my back and neck. I could have gotten my chair from work but unfortunately with such a small living area to have something like that sitting at your kitchen table 24/7 looking at you when you get to sit on the sofa for relaxation is not going to help somebody try and switch off or separate at work and home life.
Concentration levels out the window, yes the no commute is nice but some people thrive on that structure in life.
@Fi Wyse: Can they let you into the office to get your desk and chair? I took my screen setup home.
@Fi Wyse: Totally agree, the extra hour in bed is nice, but working on a laptop in the kitchen for months on end wrecks your back, neck and eyes.
@SC: do you even read her comment fully?
@Fi Wyse: there is no structure to life for those in coffins, or the numbers who are left with life changing repercussions from serious lung infections.
@SC: yes we were given the options to do that but unfortunately if I was to have dual screens on my kitchen table then myself and my partner would have nowhere to have our dinner and his three children that we have every weekend in a very small space.
My job were absolutely fantastic though they literally cleared out the whole office to anybody who has space to take in equipment at home
@D’oh: I never appreciated the importance of a good cardboard box until I started working at home!!! If it’s sturdy then it gets used as office equipment!!!
@M Bowe: I’m not really sure where you were going with your comment but I fully comply with all of the regulations that have been set out by the government I wear my mask everywhere I only travel for essential journeys to take care of my mother who lives on her own and suffers from COPD so trust me I know all about serious lung issues.
But I’m also human who is confined to one room for more than what it was designated for and it’s having a serious impact on my mental health.
Thankfully I am able to go into the office now two days a week and I travel by car but there are others who unfortunately don’t have their own modes of transport who are in the same situation as me and they are effectively stuck at home.
@Fi Wyse: what might help is a hinged worktop at a height where you could stand at it with your laptop then when not in use the worktop folds up against the wall. Alternate with that and sitting should give your back some relief.
@Steve: honestly the only space where I could try and install something like that is where my television is on the wall I live in an incredibly small apartment.
I alternate between sitting at the kitchen table and standing at the kitchen counter hence the love of different sized cardboard boxes to alter height for a laptop.
@Fi Wyse: then all I can suggest is swap your bed for a bunk bed :)
It’s a lack of trust in you’re employees if you insist that they work from the office if they could work from home. That in itself is a toxic work environment.
I don’t think some companies realise that they are actually protecting themselves and ensuring business continuity by allowing remote working. For example if a company insisting that employees are on site has a cluster of Covid breakout in their staff could be left in a situation with no one to do the work required.
@Ted Logan: workplaces with clusters should be shut down for three weeks. We can’t allow people to profit at the expense of public health.
Businesses have had over 6 months to work out all the issues they have preventing people working from home. I’ve noticed the Dart becoming busier, particularly in the past week and it’s not schoolkids. Even a couple of days WFH is better than none. Reducing footfall in offices, streets and public transport is a must at this stage.
If your boss insists you come in to work well that’s what you do he’s paying you
@john: And that’s the attitude that helped meat plants turn into clusters and got lads killed in workplaces for years.
@john: or she
@Mill Lane: can’t see meat packers and butchers working from home!
@Mill Lane: ah Sher the meat plant workers should work from home so
What if my employer is Norma Foley?
@ruairi: give it a rest. Her employees were at home from March to September (on full pay I might add)
@Anne Jordan: So because they were at home then, they can’t get the virus now? Suck it up, that’s your advice? No wonder we haven’t heard the mantra “we’re all in this together” in months.
@ruairi: nurses, guards, prison officers and many others… ALL have worked frontline daily since March while teachers were sat safe at home.. The only “mantra” we EVER hear is from the ever whingeing teachers. they whinged before the pandemic, during the pandemic and I have no doubt will whinge after it’s all over.
Give it a rest no one has any sympathy left for them!
@Anne Jordan: Whingeing about being forced to work in buildings with hundreds of people a day, when the same government tells the rest of the country it’s not safe for them to be in their shops, their offices etc. Whingeing about the fact that the government are treating adult and near-adult teens the same as primary school infants when making calls on their public health. Whingeing that – unlike the gardai and prison service – putting yourself in harm’s way (to fulfil a political commitment) isn’t in the job description of a teacher. But it’s completely acceptable to you to force all teachers onto the frontline, regardless of any concerns they might have, because you hate em all! What a callous way to treat your fellow citizens, I hope you don’t pass your hateful views on to your kids.
@ruairi: your answer proves my point.. I would imagine that putting oneself in harms way is not in the job description of a nurse a doctor, or a porter in a hospital or the assistants who bring patients their meals . I have 2 adult children who are teachers and another adult child who has been working since March in a covid ward, who does full 12 hour shifts in full double PPE gear and is near exhaustion point
No – I don’t pass callous views onto my kids but my two teachers know how good they have it when their sister is home and isolates herself from everyone in the house to protect them .
When they have conversations with her through a closed door they are very appreciative of how good they have it.
Now grow up or shut up.
@Anne Jordan: Bring tears to a stone that sob story. I trust you ridiculed your two wayward children for scronging their salary off the state whilst they sat safe at home (not teaching online!?!) during the last lockdown? I’d imagine doctors and nurses are vaguely aware of the posibility they’d have to work during a pandemic, as your favourite child – who works in a covid ward – surely told you about during their training. I work with people who’ve got serious health issues, relatives who rely on them for whom covid could spell the end; they’ve to teach, clean and maintain a school with hundreds of students, every day. I’m adult enough to have a bit of compassion for those people at this time, maybe you could fathom some inkling of empathy for one second too. UgHhH bUt TeAcHeRs!!!
@ruairi: but not adult enough to have a difference of opinion without resorting to insults.. your education served you well..
@Anne Jordan: Differences of opinion are one thing Anne, but you responded to my initial comment with the dismissal “give it a rest”, generalised all teachers as nothing but whingers for having the temerity to voice their concerns about their health during a public health crisis – “no sympathy!” – then whinged your own sob story.
So GDPR is yet another negative in life, for all of its importance of security it has ways of being a barrier to everything.
@Brynþór Patrekursson: This “Grogan character” is a qualified solicitor specialising in employment law, I suspect he knows bit more than yourself about the subject!
@Brynþór Patrekursson: you seem to have a chip on your shoulder that you need to lose
@Paddy Cullen AIWS: undoubtedly but the bit about Accounts people not being able to work because of unsecured laptops was a stretch eh maybe issue work laptops that are secured and locked down as most companies have done.
Typical Lieo. A legal right to request to work from home but no legal obligation for employer to grant the request.
A lot of high level bankers I know are meeting in car parks, staying in vehicles and leaving whatever documents for transfer in their boots, one guy told me he doesn’t expect to be back in his office before March at the earliest or maybe never..
@ianglen: Bankers and crims, acting the same since the dawn of time!
Working from home must be accommodated and not only for pandemic. I’m sure there is a corner in every persons room that has a table. Bring a chair and screen from work, must be allowed to do so, the employer will save on office space rental and all utilities. It won’t suit landlords which I am fine with! and service sector, which is pity but will make many things better and cheaper for most of the people. Not all can work from home for many reasons but those who can must be not only allowed but encouraged.
@Lena Madden: no unfortunately not everybody has a corner in their home to work from some people need to work from the kitchen table which is a communal shared space and some people who live at home with their parents are working in the bedroom and also sleeping in the bedroom this is not right!
@Fi Wyse: Move down the country and get a nicer place for cheaper rent
@Fi Wyse: my son moved home from a house share for this reason. The way we expect young workers to live in this country is disgraceful.
@Michael: I own my own home its not that simple to up sticks and move, not that I would want to move further away from friends and family to accommodate a virus, the job is not the problem never was.
Working in IT I thought I would have to work in the office to support our staff regardless however with the 1st lockdown we found that we didn’t need to be on site, provided we could access stock when needed. While plan was to bring 25% staff back to office it was not the intent to bring IT back in as we could do as much from home and go to office out of hours if needed. Thankfully the company is more than willing to work with all staff to find the best option for most including decent setups at home for those that want.
Invest the money you’ve spent on bus fare and takeaway coffees and buy a spare screen for 100 euros. That’s what I did back in March. When the equation changes one needs to adapt.
Is he going to start with civil servants, contact tracers etc ?
@Laura Crowe: What a ridiculous comment. Any civil servant who could work from home was allowed to do so and has continued to do so. The civil servants who can’t are the ones behind the masks and visors either swabbing or treating people with Covid or other absolutely neccesary work that cannot be done remotely.
@Alan Dillon: Apparently this isn’t true. There are DFA workers having to go in to the passport office, where it is overcrowded and unventilated, to process non-emergency passports. Most of their jobs can easily be done from home but they’re being told by their superiors the must go in to the office because of security concerns while these self same superiors are all working from home.
Time to disband NPHET, and put new people in charge of HSE. They have done nothing for the last 6 months.
Two expert people from Estonia and Japan would do. Countries that can do things right.
All protesting banned. Mask wearing all the time outside in cities.
Cant ring in sick anymore
@blue exile: yes this is another big issue there have been days where I have felt poorly and I’ve just kept working because well I’m sitting at my kitchen table and I’m in my pyjamas so essentially I don’t have the stress of commuting but you still have the stress of work which is stopping you from resting and getting better.
The government’s telling you to work from home – what if your boss insists you come in?
You go to work.
Funny I didn’t realise it was illegal to ask your employer to work from home? Therefore we already have that legal right… and this is a non-story that is the subject of several articles in the newsfeed?
“Boss” what’s that word? Supervisor , manager, employer etc…. but “boss” is a word I’ll never use.
“The right to ask”
“The right to ask”
have your say