Flexible work promises feature in all election manifestos

Election manifesto advice by Alan Hickey, Associate Director of Advisory at Peninsula. 

If there’s one thing for employers to note from the publication of election manifestos in recent weeks, it’s that changes are coming to the workplace regardless of what shape the next government takes.

Increasing flexible work options for employees features across all manifestos published by the major parties in the run-up to the general election.

Here we take a look at some of the employment-related pledges made by each party.

Fine Gael

Fine Gael’s proposed employment-related policy developments do not depart from what has been promised while the party was in government. The principal pledges are:

— paid parent’s leave in the first year of a child’s life to be extended to 9 weeks by 2025
— flexible work to be increased across the workforce
— protecting employee tips through legislation
— putting the Code of Practice for Determining Employment Status on a statutory footing
— reform of the employment permit process
— promoting returnships to encourage people to return to the workforce following a career break
— increased focus on facilitating lifelong learning
— progressing mandatory gender pay gap reporting by large employers
— introducing a legal right to disconnect
— progress plans for pension auto-enrolment by 2022.

Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil’s manifesto outlines a commitment to deliver on five broad aims by 2025. The party set out the following employment-related policies in its manifesto:

— a commitment to encourage employers to facilitate employees who wish to work beyond the age of 65
— outlaw contracts that have a mandatory retirement age of 65
— improve take up from the reasonable accommodation fund
— introduce an employee right to request flexible work options
— introduce a new shared apprenticeship model where employers band together to hire trainees
— implement gender pay gap transparency legislation
— increase maternity leave and benefit from 26 weeks to 30 weeks
— protect the first 14 weeks of leave as core maternity leave and 4 weeks as core paternity leave and allow parents to share the remainder of paid and unpaid leave as they choose.

Green Party

The Green Party manifesto centres around its ‘Just Transition’ to a low carbon economy. Among the employment affairs policies are:

— the promotion of share-based employment schemes to motivate both employers and employees to grow businesses
— legislate for the right of employees not to answer or respond to work-related correspondence outside of work
— introduce a Universal Basic Income
— progress legislation to require companies to publish aggregated data on pay by reference to the gender of their employees
— eliminate mandatory retirement laws and push for a flexible approach to retirement options
— extend paternity leave and increase the flexibility of family-friendly leave options
— increase the level of paid parental leave to allow men to share with women in caring for children or relatives and running homes.

The Labour Party

Flexibility and work-life balance are a key feature of the Labour Party manifesto. Election pledges include:

— a shorter working week for no less pay
— a right to flexible work and ‘waged commuting’
— increased paid public holidays to bring Ireland up to the European average of 11
— ensuring workers’ right to switch off from work when at home.
— maintaining the State Pension age at 66
— end compulsory retirement at 65 in employment contracts, and provide a transition payment to retirees who don’t qualify for the state pension
— increase the minimum wage to a living wage of €12.30
— eliminate bogus self-employment and ‘if and when’ working arrangements.

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin has promised a massive increase in public spending. From an employment perspective, it includes a significant reform of industrial relations legislation that would see employees gain increased collective bargaining rights. Other employment pledges include:

— greater access to remote working, ensuring employers give due consideration to any request to work remotely made by an employee and associated legal protections for workers.
— an additional 26 weeks of maternity (or paternity) leave to enable a parent to be with their child for the first year of its life and increasing the rate of benefit paid by €50 to €295
— legal obligation for employers that can afford to pay the Living Wage to do so
— enacting the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill and strengthening it by also including fines for those companies who fail to take measures to reduce the gender pay gap in their organisation
— major reforms of industrial relations and trade union legislation
— ending the ‘bogus self-employment’ abuse of employment law, to protect workers and ensure businesses are paying their pay-related social insurance contribution
— give workers a right to disconnect from work outside of regular work hours, and require employers, in consultation with employees and their trade union representatives, to put in place a right to disconnect policy for their workers
— enacting its proposed legislation on the treatment of employee tips.

Whatever the outcome of the general election, it is clear that there will be changes for employers to adapt to in the coming years.

All employers will need to ensure they keep up to date with legal developments as all parties are promising to make changes to how the workplace operates.