‘It’s been a long time coming’: provisions of Work Life Balance Bill set to be in effect within weeks

The first provisions of the Work Life Balance Bill are expected to be in place within a matter of weeks, with employees to be entitled to up to five days of unpaid leave per year to tend to the medical needs of close relatives.

An extension to the period during which women can take breaks to breastfeed or express milk from 26 weeks to 104 weeks is also on course to come quickly into effect as a result of the Bill, which has been signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins.

Speaking in the Dáil last week, as final amendments were incorporated into the Bill, Minister for Equality Roderic O’Gorman said his goal is to have the other key elements – relating to paid leave for victims of domestic abuse, the right to request flexible working arrangements for the purpose of caring for family members and the right to request remote working – in place by the autumn.

There had been, he suggested, a desire on all sides that the implementation be somewhat staggered but the need to put processes in place with regard to some elements would largely dictate the timetable. The rate at which people taking domestic violence leave would be paid has yet to be decided.

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“I think the breastfeeding breaks and the five days caring leave can come in early,” he said, adding that he hoped domestic violence leave would be made available by the end of the summer.

‘Very small group of countries’

Responding to complaints from Opposition TDs, who said the final legislation might have been better, Mr O’Gorman said he respected “the right of deputies to argue for more” but that Ireland was “joining a very small group of countries that have taken this important step”.

The legislation has been widely welcomed. However, there some concerns about how it will be implemented and a good deal of frustration in some quarters that the rate at which those who take leave related to domestic violence is not clearly set out at being 100 per cent in the legislation.

“It’s a very comprehensive Bill, covering a lot and, of course, we agree with the principle that it’s making it easier for workers to combine their work and family life,” said Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) social policy analyst Laura Bambrick. “So it’s really good in that respect. The bulk of the Bill really is to transpose an EU directive but they have gone beyond that.”

The fact that the provision for breastfeeding breaks effectively only previously applied to the period that almost most women would have taken in statutory maternity leave was, she suggests, puzzling, but she sees the extension as a progressive step.

The move to make flexible working arrangements more widely available is also a positive, she said, noting that Ireland was lagging behind much of Europe in this regard with the directive having obliged the Government to do some catching up. The effect will, where it can be reasonably accommodated, see workers permitted to seek school term time working or other tailored hours to allow them to care for family members.

“A lot more countries had these even before Covid because they recognise that if they were going to keep more women, more mothers in the workforce, flexibility was going to be part of it. And there’s a recognition that it can be good for business as well that they’re not training people who then leave after five or six years when they start having children,” Ms Bambrick said.

On the right to request remote working, she said a great deal will depend on the Code of Practice which now to be worked out between the various parties at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The Bill requires an employer to consider their own needs, those of the employee making the request and the terms of the code when weighing up applications.

“The code of practice is going to be sort of formulating what are reasonable grounds for turning down a request and that’s no small task because what’s reasonable to me might not be reasonable to you. That’s where you have to make sure you nail that down,” she added.

More equitable

In the event an employee feels their request was not fairly or properly dealt with, they can make a complaint to the WRC. When a fault is found, the WRC can only order that the two parties go away and go through the process, more equitably, again.

Síobhra Rush, partner and head of the employment law firm Lewis Silkin’s Dublin office, said that is a more reasonable approach than allowing the WRC to make orders in relation to whether the request should be granted or not.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable in those circumstances to expect a third party to understand the circumstances in a particular business after a two-hour hearing,” she said.

Her firm has had, Ms Rush said, a high volume of inquiries from businesses seeking guidance on the new legislation with the remote working aspect an especially “hot topic”.

With the wider provisions following on from the introduction of statutory sick pay at the start of the year and other legislation in recent times, she said she has never previously seen so many changes to employment law.

“We’re seeing more of an influx of life into work,” she added. “There are things that I would never have brought into work that employers now have to deal with. That’s not a bad thing, but I do find it strange that there’s so many more obligations on employers in respect of their employees’ lives and yet people say we’re working longer and harder than we ever have.

New obligations

“I think that for SMEs and smaller employers this might be slightly more difficult. There are a lot of new regulations, new obligations that employers need to meet and where there is an additional burden you would hope that the Government will help out because it will be difficult for some of the smaller ones who have to absorb those costs.”

Neil McDonell of Isme agreed, saying that while his organisation’s members will be broadly supportive of the new measures, “they must work for both employers and employees”.

“The impact will be most significant in the services sector, where the employer must provide for the employee while also providing a replacement worker to deliver the service,” he says.

Ms Rush believes there will be general support for the domestic abuse leave provisions and points to the fact that many employers, most commonly larger ones, have already introduced the sort of measures being legislated for.

The provisions have been welcomed by some of organisations working with victims of domestic abuse, but Women’s Aid said its’ welcome was a qualified one because the Bill allows for five days of paid leave per year instead of the 10 sought.

“Instead of just stipulating in the legislation that the employee would receive their full rate of pay, when there are so many reasons why that should be the case, they inserted a requirement for the establishment of regulations under which the Minister will dictate the rate of pay,” Women’s Aid chief executive Sarah Benson said.

“So they have added another layer, another process which really, we think, is entirely unnecessary. There has already been an extensive consultation period.”

Ultimately, she argued, the provision of leave works not just for employees but – as the feedback from firms like Vodafone, Allianz and An Post suggests – their employers too.

Sense of wellbeing

“The truth is that it’s only a small proportion of employees who will ever need to avail of this leave but the fact that it’s provided for has a much wider impact in terms of the sense of wellbeing. What we have seen in companies where systems exist is that colleagues are given the tools they need to signpost the supports that are available and so it also provides a sense of awareness and solidarity,” Ms Benson said.

Sinn Féin’s employment spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly said her Private Members’ Bill on domestic violence leave provided for full pay, something the Minister is expected to deliver on after the renewed period of renewed public consultation, and for 10 days to be provided.

Ms O’Reilly said that having kept the issue on the agenda, the aim now is to ensure the detail still to be worked out – in areas like awareness, training and the text of the code of practice – delivers the full benefits of measures that have long been anticipated.

“We do have to be careful to get it right here,” she said. “For instance, when people are taking leave due to domestic or gender-based violence you have to have something in place so that everyone doesn’t know why that person is having to take the leave.

“It can’t be a one size fits all approach. In a small to medium enterprise, they will have particular challenges but there are already mechanisms in place in the universities to do this and so we should be looking for ways to scale down and press ahead.

“We won’t be accepting any excuses for delays. The people have already waited long enough for the legislation. It’s very good, it’s very positive – I regard that as an achievement for Sinn Féin – but it’s been a long time coming.”