The Irish government has approved the drafting of a Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill.

This General Scheme of a Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 (the General Scheme) was brought to Cabinet by Minister Roderic O’Gorman who hopes that it will pass through both houses of the Oireachtas by the end of July 2022. The General Scheme proposes a number of legislative changes which are designed to allow for a better work life balance for parents and carers, to encourage more equal sharing of parental leave between men and women and ultimately to try and improve the representation of women in the labour market.

What are the key proposals under the General Scheme?

Right to request flexible working

The General Scheme proposes the introduction of a right for employees with children up to the age of 12 (or 16 if the child has a disability or long-term illness), and employees with caring responsibilities, to request flexible working arrangements for a set period of time for caring purposes. The General Scheme goes further than the EU Work-life Balance Directive (the Directive) and will apply to children up to 12 years old (or 16 as outlined above), whereas the Directive provides this right for parents with children up to eight years old.

It was expected that this right might have been extended to all employees, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Under the current draft, the employee requesting flexible working arrangements needs to have six...

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