Working from home: what's the deal?
Ireland has the highest percentage of employees working from home in the EU. Now Amazon, one of the country's top employers, wants to reverse this situation, which arose mainly due to the pandemic, and has asked all employees to go back to working in the office five days a week from next January. The issue of remote working has prompted a wider discussion beyond Ireland.
This will lead to conflict
Around a quarter of employees in Ireland work entirely from home and won't be willing to give this up so easily, says The Irish Times:
“Anecdotally the evidence is that the announcement has not gone down well with its Irish workforce, some of whom believe it is an effort to reduce headcount through natural attrition as staff will opt to leave rather than return to the office full time. ... It seems inevitable that some Amazon employees will seek to avail of the EU Work Life Balance Directive ... The outcome of its push to get staff back into the office will be closely watched here and across the Atlantic.”
The state should stay out of this
The Guardian argues that the British government's plan to give workers the right to work from home is misguided:
“Labour laws are highly sensitive. ... Employers should not need ministers and lawyers to tell them how to do their job. Their results will tell them that. In most organisations, the relationship between employer and employee is personal and consensual. It should not need the state to regulate so intimate a matter as where they choose to work. Working from home appears to be a bold and exciting innovation. It is also a major change in social behaviour. It should be left to settle down before Whitehall marches in to manage it.”