Ireland was referred to the EU Court of Justice in early 2024 for its failure to implement laws allowing for flexible work arrangements, in the time set out.
Flexible working and policies regarding improved work-life balance have been an important topic of conversation for some time now. With many organisations and countries adopting new rules that empower people to better manage their working lives.
One such form of legislation is the EU Work-Life Balance Directive, created in 2019, which requires EU member states to implement balanced work-life policies aimed at parents and carers, into their national laws within a certain timeframe.
Designed to improve workplace inequalities, particularly in relation to gender and the responsibilities of caregivers across the EU, the Directive requires countries to observe minimum standards for employees in areas concerning parental leave, carers leave, paternity leave and flexible working.
In September 2022, the year in which the new policies were due to be implemented, the European Commission, which is the EU’s politically independent executive arm, responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, sent a formal letter to Ireland identifying concerns that the country had yet to fully impose the Directive.
However, Ireland responded in 2023 to confirm that while the Work-Life Balance Act had been observed, the country was still in the process of developing a code of practice on the employees right to request remote or flexible working arrangements.
A delay that was deemed by the European Commission as evidence of Ireland’s failure to comply with the Directive and resulted in the escalation of the case to the EU Court of Justice in January 2024.
A couple of weeks later, in March of that year, Ireland’s Government published the Code of Practice, which was devised by the Workplace Relations Commission and brought into effect the employees right to ask to work remotely or flexibly, effectively completing the requirements set out by the Directive.
However, while the Commission did withdraw its request to impose an additional penalty payment, Ireland was consequently accused of delaying the rules of the Directive for a period of 581 days after the August 2022 deadline. Resulting in a fine of €1.54m to be paid to the European Commission.
Where to go from here?
Commenting on the news, The Department of Children, Disability and Equality explained that it understands that adherence to the EU directive is important but that in this particular scenario there were a number of factors that played a part in delaying the implementation of its criteria.
According to a spokesperson, “The Department’s necessary focus on providing humanitarian assistance for Ukrainian refugees diverted staff resources from the process of transposing the Work Life Balance Directive in 2022.”
Other resources such as the Irish Times added that the Department found the global pandemic to be a barrier to the adoption of the Directive’s strategy in full and that overall, Ireland is making progress when it comes to reducing the delays in transposing EU directives.
For Mary Connaughton, the strategic engagement director of CIPD Ireland, moving forward the country needs to pay greater attention to the timely adoption of EU directives if it is to ensure that employees have access to full protections and benefits.
She explained, “The government needs to ensure that legislation is passed on time. They need to take immediate action to introduce the legislation for upcoming EU Directives that are due to be law next year, such as the Pay Transparency Directive and the Platform Workers Directive, to improve their working conditions.”
She added Ireland is in an excellent position to do more than just comply with minimum requirements. If the Government were to take a closer look at the entitlements to flexible working and extend them to all employees, not just those set out by the Directive, Ireland could serve as a role model for good practice.
“Many employers provide flexibility, but not all roles can offer a high level of flexibility,” said Connaughton. “The right to access flexible working needs to be strengthened, so that the rationale behind decisions is examined and equitable, not just the procedures.”
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