The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 (Act) has been signed into law. Moira Grassick outlines the Act’s key provisions and its implications for employers and employees

Last month, the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 (Act) was signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins.

This new employment legislation will introduce several new statutory rights aimed at supporting a better work-life balance for employees and also supporting those with caring responsibilities.

The Act also seeks to support employees who are victims of domestic violence through the introduction of a statutory paid leave entitlement of five days.

New rights

In summary, the Act introduces the following rights:

• the right to request remote working for all employees;
• the right to request flexible working for parents and carers;
• the right to breastfeeding breaks extended to two years from the date of the child’s birth;
• five days’ unpaid leave for medical care purposes for parents of children under 12 and carers; and
• five days’ paid leave for victims of domestic violence.

The right to request remote work

As all employees with more than six months of continuous service will soon have a right to request remote work, employers will need to plan how to manage these requests.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is also developing a Code of Practice to provide further guidance for employers and employees on managing requests for remote working arrangements.

An employer must respond to the request within four weeks. However, this timeframe may be extended to eight weeks if the employer is having difficulty assessing the workability of the request.

While employers will be obliged to consider these requests under the new law, it should be remembered that there is no obligation to grant all requests.

If employers refuse the request, the Act states they must provide a written notification to the employee confirming the reasons for the refusal.

The WRC does not have jurisdiction to challenge the merits or the grounds of an employer’s decision to refuse a request for remote working.

Potential impact

The new rights to request flexible work for parents and carers, and remote work for all employees, are designed to promote a better work-life balance.

While they represent a new development in employment law in Ireland, how these rights will operate in practice remains to be seen.

Employers must develop policies for managing this type of request and prepare for negotiations with employees who want to alter their working patterns.

Employers in industries that have developed remote work practices in recent years may face pressure to grant requests. If operations were largely unaffected by remote working arrangements brought in to deal with pandemic restrictions, it might be difficult to refuse a request for productivity or operational reasons.

And with the jobs market remaining tight, employers who refuse requests risk losing valued employees to a competitor who does offer flexible or remote working options.

Unpaid leave for medical purposes 

The Act states that an employee is entitled to five days’ unpaid medical leave in a 12-month period to provide “significant care or support for a serious medical reason” for a person who is in a specified relationship with the employee, such as a spouse, civil partner, parent, sibling or person who resides in the same household as an employee.

This leave is different to force majeure leave, which gives an employee three days in a 12-month period or five days in a 36-month period for an urgent family matter.

Paid domestic violence leave 

The Act introduces this new leave which provides for five days’ paid leave for victims of domestic violence to allow the affected employee to seek medical advice, legal representation and to engage with other specialist support services.

Bespoke employment policies

As it seems highly unlikely that all businesses will be able to roll out generic “one size fits all” policies to manage all these new employee rights, each company will need to tailor new policies to the specific needs of its operations.

While employers should wait until the WRC Code of Practice is finalised before tailoring their remote work policies, it’s a good idea to begin preparing to update handbooks and policies to reflect these upcoming changes, making remote working more accessible for more employees.

Moira Grassick is Chief Operating Officer at Peninsula