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Tánaiste Leo Varadkar TD: Legislating the future of work
report connectivity and the future of work Leo Varadkar TD: The changing world of work
The pandemic changed the world of work forever. Millions of people and businesses around the world moved overnight from the office to home working. This shift might have taken decades if it had been planned. Instead, it took days, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD writes.
On balance, these are changes for the better. Less commuting, more time for family and leisure, and potentially fewer transport greenhouse gas emissions. New job opportunities are being created for people who want to live in rural Ireland, people with disabilities, and people with caring responsibilities. Small towns and villages have seen new investment, along with greater footfall and spend.
But there are risks as well. We do not want to turn our homes into workplaces where we are always on. We want to spread jobs more evenly across the country, but we do not want to lose them to other countries. We want to retain the creativity and innovation that flourishes from people meeting each other and do not want people to become isolated. We want our city centres to remain vibrant places.
So, in early 2021, I published Ireland’s first Remote Work Strategy. It is a crossgovernment plan to ensure we approach remote working cohesively and make it a permanent feature of Ireland’s workforce in a way that can benefit all – economically, socially, and environmentally.
Credit: Merrion Street
Credit: Fine Gael
Among its main actions are:
1. Mandating that home and remote work should be the norm for 20 per cent of public sector employment.
The public sector must lead by example and earlier this year we published a Blended Working Policy
Framework for Civil Service
Organisations, which was developed in collaboration with civil service employers, trade unions, and staff associations.
2. Reviewing the treatment of remote working for the purposes of tax and expenditure in the next Budget. An enhanced income tax deduction of 30 per cent of heat, electricity and broadband expenses for remote workers was announced in Budget 2022. 3. Mapping and investing in a network of remote working hubs across
Ireland. We launched
ConnectedHubs.ie, Ireland’s national digital hub network last year. There are currently 290 remote and co-working facilities across the country on-boarded to the connectedhubs.ie platform. This number is growing all the time meaning we are well on track to meet our target of 400 remote working hubs nationwide by 2025.
4. Legislating for the right to request remote working. While reaching agreement on this legislation has been more difficult than expected, the Oireachtas Committee published its pre-legislative scrutiny report in July, and we plan to finalise our proposals before the end of the year.
5. Developing a code of practice for the right to disconnect. I requested the Workplace Relations
Commission to develop a Code of
Practice on the right to disconnect and a legally admissible code was published in April 2021.
6. Doing what we can to accelerate the provision of high-speed broadband to all parts of Ireland.
While the National Broadband Plan has been impacted negatively by
Covid-19, the Department of the
Environment, Climate and
Communications is continuing to engage with National Broadband
Ireland and delivery of the Plan has regained momentum in recent months. Over 100,000 homes, farms and businesses will be passed (capable of being connected to fibre) by January and close to 200,000 by the end of next year.
So, as you can see, good progress has been made.
Striking the right balance on the Right to Request Remote Work legislation has proven difficult. It will, for the first time, provide a legal framework around which requesting, approving, or refusing a request for remote work can be based. It will also provide legal clarity to employers on their obligations for dealing with such requests.
Of course, in practice, employers and employees are agreeing to arrangements that suit both sides. In the vast majority of workplaces, no legislation is required to make this happen. That is borne out by the results of the Third Annual National Remote Working Survey carried out by the University of Galway and the Western Development Commission.
The past two-and-a-half years, especially during lockdown, gave people the time to consider their lives, their work life balance, and the meaning of work.
Many of you have read about ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘the great resignation’. I am not so sure we are witnessing the start of new phenomena, but I certainly think people are re-evaluating their careers and their lives as a result of the pandemic. Perhaps, it will prove to be more a ‘great reset’.
Wages will be important, especially with inflation, but workers will increasingly push employers to be more creative about the types of jobs they offer.
The battle for talent in a globalised economy will become even more important in the coming years. Ukraine, inflation, labour shortages and a range of other factors are coming together to make that battle even more intense.
Employers will struggle to recruit and retain staff. Ireland will have to make sure it is ahead of the curve, offering better terms and conditions than elsewhere, to continue growing employment.
So, I believe better pay, terms and conditions make sense for everyone –for workers and families, for jobs, business, and investment and for the public finances.
I also believe that the most important workers’ right is the right to work, so we need to guard against any policies that might reduce employment levels or harm business. We need to be very cognisant of that at the most, given rising costs and falling consumer confidence, so we must not move too fast.
As a government, we are working to ensure the pandemic leaves a legacy of a more inclusive and secure society.
Pexip: Powering the future of citizen services with scalable video for public sector
Global video conferencing software provider, Pexip, is trusted by many governments and public sector organisations for delivering secure and scalable video communications. Its unique offering simplifies video communications by unifying meeting participants across multiple platforms and devices.
The power of video for access to services
While video is not necessary for every engagement between government and citizens, when personal contact requiring non-verbal communication and empathy are imperative for a successful customer interaction, video is an unrivalled medium. When it is wellimplemented, video can help a service scale while also delivering higher levels of client satisfaction.
Nick Ross, Head of Public Sector UK and Ireland for Pexip explains: “Certainly, more and more customers in the retail, banking and customer service industries want to use video for transactions where they know these things are important, but this shift is happening in the public sector too. Many agencies are now appreciating that video is the best alternative to face to face for several key services in the welfare interviews, social care and revenue consultancies.”
With a firm focus on data security and data sovereignty, Pexip’s innovative technology is enabling public sector organisations in Ireland and further afield, to extend their reach by providing secure, easy-to-join appointments and meetings for citizens from any device or location, enhancing their existing services, tools and workflows as well as improving user experience.
Impact of Covid-19 pandemic
“Clearly, the Covid-19 pandemic brought about a rapid shift in both the public’s usage and expectations of video meetings,” says Ross. “We were compelled to use it and get used to it, and consequently are more willing to accept it in place of traditionally face to face engagements. The public sector was pressed to quickly adapt to new ways of delivering. With government departments forced to close high street locations where large volumes of their transactions with the public took place, they had to think differently about how they maintained continuity through that period.”
Will this be the new norm?
With locations now re-opening and face to face services resuming, government departments are now committed to maintaining video channels as part of a hybrid approach, with face to face complemented by a stronger digital capability. This is now the direction of travel for much of the public sector.
According to Ross: “Not only is it more effective for the delivery organisation, it also provides greater choice for citizens in a world where they are increasingly under pressure for time and expect the services from their local authority, health provider and central ministries to be as accessible as those in the private sector.”
Learn more about Pexip’s Secure Solutions here: E: nicholas.ross@pexip.com W: www.pexip.com/government
Five things Ireland must do to maintain its competitive advantage
Every now and then, it is worth taking a moment to look at ‘Ireland Inc’. How is it performing? What have we accomplished in the last 12 months? What did we fail at? And what should we really be focused on now? David McCourt, chairman of National Broadband Ireland, writes.
Ireland is a small country that has played an outsized leadership role over the past 50 years.
After its electrification and road network build-out, Ireland was the first country in the world to institute a nationwide comprehensive law for smoke-free workplaces, and it was the first to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote.
A far-sighted free education scheme in the 1960s has given us the most concentrated university graduate population in Europe today.
Developing a business-friendly tax scheme, over some European Union protests, has also been important. This convinced some of the largest companies in the world to set up shop to hire, train and employ thousands of Irish citizens. We are still reaping the benefits today. If you follow the international news closely, you know that the tax advantage Ireland once had is slipping away. The world is moving towards a more uniform corporate tax rate, a change that would eliminate the competitive advantage we have built for ourselves. That is why there is now a special urgency to the question of
Collectively, we need to find a new strategic advantage to stay competitive and ensure we remain an attractive destination for global businesses as well as fostering business growth at home. First, we must maintain and build on the strong foundation we have created over the last 50 years as a market with a hardworking, educated population, and a high-quality education and healthcare system.
Second, Ireland needs a plan to address the fact that, at present, one-third of the Irish economy is made up of money that is just passing through the country. We need a plan to keep more of this capital here. This is a complex challenge that will require us doing a lot of things differently. But solving this issue starts with focusing on attracting long-term capital for critical projects and launching efforts to ensure Ireland owns more of its own intellectual property, across business, software, and entertainment.
Third, we must decentralise opportunity. For too long, rural areas around the globe have been left behind in terms of economic opportunity. Ireland is no different. For all the vibrancy of our small towns and villages, the best schools, the best hospitals, the best jobs, and the best infrastructure are found in our cities. Urban areas have an incredible advantage, partially thanks to access to connectivity and digital services. Many rural areas have been left underserved, creating all sorts of knock-on issues and problems, and limiting our potential.
To grow as a nation, we need to create jobs where people live. We need, through technology, to create new companies, grow existing businesses, and attract employment remotely from global corporations.
Fourth, and this point is connected to the previous point, Ireland must finish its bold plan to make high-speed broadband available to every man, woman, and child in the country through its National Broadband Plan. As chairman of National Broadband Ireland, I obviously have a vested interest in making this happen, but as an Irish citizen living in rural Ireland, my connection and commitment to this venture is not just a matter of business. I truly believe that the work of being successful in the future and decentralising opportunity starts with universal access to world-leading broadband. I also believe that it will prove critical, in the long term, to improving education, healthcare and bringing jobs to rural Ireland. Finally, Ireland needs to be an active participant in setting the tech rules and regulation for Internet 3.0 and 4.0. I have been blessed to spend 30 years in the technology, media, and telecommunication industries. In this time, I have seen a lot of change – but that 30 years of change is nothing compared to what is about to happen.
Just last year,the EU started the process of changing internet regulations with the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts. At present these are on a path to becoming law with little or no global collaboration and we risk having laws that are not aligned with some of our closest allies outside of Europe, including the United States.
Ireland is well positioned to take the lead in bringing the EU, America, and other developed nations together to establish a global set of rules, which can help protect consumers and foster business growth across Ireland. We have new, critical opportunities to further strengthen Ireland’s economy and promote greater opportunity. The time to act is now.
NBI workers rolling out National Broadband Plan infrastructure.
W: www.nbi.ie
