Labour has called on government parties to support their remote work legislation.
They said that their legislation would “finally align Ireland’s labour laws with how people actually live and work.”
Kildare TD and party spokesperson on social protection, Mark Wall, warned that Ireland’s remote working framework is “built for a world that no longer exists and is actively pushing workers backwards.”
He said that at present, Ireland’s economic system “offers workers the illusion of flexibility while entrenching employer vetoes.”
Wall said, “Ireland’s world of work has changed fundamentally, but our laws have not kept pace. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have hardwired hesitation, delay and employer vetoes into legislation, leaving workers with flexibility in name only. The result is a system that talks about modern work while quietly forcing people back into habits that no longer make sense.”
He stated, “this retreat is deeply short sighted. It ignores the housing crisis, clogged transport systems and our climate commitments. It forces people into longer commutes, higher costs and more stress, with no credible evidence of economic benefit. Worse still, it signals a lack of trust in workers and a refusal to accept the reality of how work is now done.”
“Our current expectations still rest on the idea that Ireland works the way it did 30 years ago, when homes were affordable on basic salaries, commutes were manageable, and people could realistically live close to where they worked. That was a time before Slack, Teams and Zoom, before permanent gridlock on our roads and before climate change shaped everyday decisions. That model is gone, but government policy pretends it still exists.
Wall said “at present, workers in Ireland do not have a genuine right to remote work. What they have is a right to ask politely and accept the answer. Even the Workplace Relations Commission cannot decide whether a job can be done remotely or whether a refusal makes sense. It can only check whether the employer filled out the paperwork correctly. That was a deliberate political choice to protect employer discretion rather than worker rights.”
He explained, “under current law, as long as the refusal is documented, it stands, no matter how arbitrary or outdated the reasoning. That is not balance, it is a blank cheque. Labour’s Bill would change that by giving workers a clear, enforceable right to work remotely where their role allows, and by ending refusals based on habit, suspicion or a fixation with visibility instead of outcomes.”
“We already know the benefits of flexible working. It has opened the workforce to carers, people with disabilities and those living far from major cities. For many people, flexibility is not a lifestyle preference. It is the difference between being able to work and being shut out entirely.
“There is no credible evidence that dragging people back into offices improves performance. What it does is increase stress, reduce retention and make life harder for people juggling housing costs, childcare and long commutes. Yet we are seeing a growing push to roll back flexibility, often without any clear rationale, exposing just how weak current protections really are.
He remarked “if the government were serious, the public sector would lead by example. Instead, we see State bodies like Enterprise Ireland reportedly forcing staff back into offices, restricting access to regional workplaces and funnelling people into hard to reach Dublin locations. That means more cars on the road, more congestion and higher emissions, directly undermining stated climate and transport goals.
“Labour’s legislation offers a clear alternative. It treats remote work as a core feature of a modern labour market, not a favour granted at management’s discretion. We are calling on government to back our Bill and stop asking workers to pay the price for its failure to face reality.”