Five big questions about how and when you will return to the office

The prospects for going back to the office remain unclear for tens of thousands currently working from home. The Government has some really tough issues to wrestle with on this one – not least that, as things stand, employers, bar those in healthcare settings, cannot ask employees if they are vaccinated.

While Electric Picnic takes the headlines, the return to work is one of the thorniest agenda items facing the Government as it finalises the next stages of reopening plan to be announced next week. Not least among the dilemmas is that, as well as providing guidance, it is also the State’s largest employer. Here are the five key questions.

1. Government guidance.

The guidance to work from home where possible remains but is expected to be altered next week, or at least an indicative timeline given for such an adjustment. With the indications being that Nphet will urge caution for the next six weeks as vaccination numbers peak, the question for Government is whether to go for a mid-September date or wait until until, say, October 4th to lift the work from home where possible guidance. Ibec has asked that employers be given more flexibility to come up with their own approach to the return to work, within a general Government framework

There is some support in Government to change the rules in by mid-September, to allow the start of a gradual return in the knowledge that it will take firms a few weeks to gear up. This would probably be ahead of the lifting of other restricitons, given the Nphet advice. The argument is the high vaccination levels among over-18s who make up the office workforce, with more being done every week. The advice to end the guideline to work from home will be set in the context of protocols and the strong advice that any return should be gradual.

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While what appears to be a minority of employers are holding on to a mid-September date to start bringing people back, many have now pushed this out to October. Others have said it will be January – or in some cases later – before they consider a return of significant numbers to the office.More offices are open now than at the start of the pandemic, but most just for essential reasons.

Where companies have outlined plans, it is generally for a move to hybrid working, with 2 or 3 days in the office. Gentle initial phase-ins are planned – AIB, for example, is understood to be starting by getting employees back into the office for one day a fortnight.

What the Government says – and does – with its own employees will be vital. Contacts between the public sector trade unions and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on this are already taking place, but full engagement is likely shortly, when the new guidance is issued. Bernard Harbor of the State's largest public sector union, Fórsa, says this will be in parallel with wider talks on the future of remote working in the public sector.

2. The rules:

Not only the date, but the rules will be vital for businesses. Social distancing rules will be particularly important, said Jennifer Cashman, employment law partner with solicitors RDJ. Will the two metre rules remain? "This would have an automatic impact on capacity," Cashman said.

If the two metre rule remains, many employers will be able to open on only a partial basis. If the rule is removed, they will be able to make more long-term plans, she says. A number of large office employers confirm that this is a vital issue for them. “ If it’s two metres, we won’t be above 30 per cent capacity,” said one.

Employers are also waiting for any guidance on the use of antigen testing. This is in use in some large manufacturing settings,but not more generally as of now.

Return to work rules in place for essential workplaces have operated well, Harbor says, though unions will be looking at the guidance to come in distancing and in ventilation, likely to be a vital one in many older workplaces and even some newer ones.

3. The vaccine dilemma:

Except in healthcare settings, employers are not allowed under GDPR rules to ask if employees are vaccinated. There are also potential constitutional issues here. Both employer and union sources say that vaccination is likely to be an issue in some workplaces, but that the very high level of vaccinations in the population should make it easier to deal with in most cases.

Under current guidance, a company can’t even ask whether a contractor going on site is vaccinated, according to Cashman.

A range of sources say some employers are asking staff whether they been vaccinated, while others have rules in place obliging contractors to have been vaccinated before entering.

A number of multinationals with big operations here are putting in place vaccine mandates internationally – these are increasingly common in the US – but have not said how they will handle the legal situation here. In many cases, pressure may also come from employees to clarify the status of the people they work with. So it is an issue that will keep bubbling away.

In a letter to Government on Thursday, Ictu general secretary, Patricia King, said the Congress supported a non-mandatory approach. Conflict should be expected in some workplaces on the issue, she said, and the Ictu was in discussions with Ibec on establishing a framework to deal with this.

The practical dilemmas are obvious. For example, under current guidance, people who are fully vaccinated do not need to isolate if they are a close contact, provided they have no symptoms. However, if an employee gets sick and colleagues are close contacts, those who are not vaccinated will have to be trusted to isolate. And if they do so, presumably their employer will effectively know their vaccine status, even if the issue is dealt with via a call from the HSE to the employee.

4. Working from Home:

The return to the office also forces employers – in both the public and private sectors – to clarify their policies on working from home, or at least come up with a position for the coming months. The Government has said it wants up to 20 per cent of its employees working from home on a hybrid basis; Harbor points out that, with attendance essential in many public sector jobs in areas like education and health, this is a significant proportion of the public sector workforce.

However, the indications from surveys are that the demand for remote or hybrid working in all sectors will be high – and tensions are likely in cases where employers want people back in the office on a more regular basis. Some employers are also concerned, sources say, that the longer working from home extends, the greater the difficulty in getting people back to an office environment. If this bridge isn’t crossed by October, it is likely to drift into 2022.

“The market will dictate” in many cases, Cashman says. Companies trying to recruit are increasingly finding they are being asked about flexible working policies. In others, employers may try to insist on a more regular return.

Legislation is promised to allow employees to request such arrangements, though employers will also have a right to disagree. How exactly this will be framed is not yet clear. Meanwhile, working from home brings its own issues, such as health and safety in terms of the home set-up and the fact that a minority of employees want to get back full time.

5. Public transport:

A key issue will be getting people to and from work. Full public transport schedules are operating and, presumably, capacity will be raised from 75 per cent to 100 per cent as schools and colleges return. But many people may be nervous using public transport, particularly with high infection rates across the community. This is likely to emerge as a crunch issue in talks between employers and employees on the return to work.

In her letter to the Government, Patricia King identified this as an issue and urged that employers be asked to facilitate flexible working hours where employees are returning to help reduce rush-hour crushes.