Background

This Practice Note examines the legal and practical issues for employers to consider in relation to remote working arrangements. The concept of remote working has been around for some time, however the experiences of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, during which many employees worked entirely, or primarily, from home resulted in a huge shift in work practices. Remote work is emerging as an increasingly common work arrangement.

The government introduced the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 to fulfil their obligation to implement Directive (EU) 2019/1158 (the Directive) on work-life balance for parents and carers. For further information on the Directive, see Practice Note: The EU Work-Life Balance Directive.

Following widespread criticism of this initial stand-alone bill, and it’s failure to reflect commitments made in Making Remote Work: National Remote Work Strategy (DETE, 2021)—guidance issued by the government in 2021 in relation to remote work, the bill was amended to include a stand-alone right for all employees to request ‘remote working arrangements’.

An employee now has the statutory right under Part 3 of the Work Life Balance