Press Room

Catherine Buckley, the newly-inaugurated national president of Macra na Feirme, has called on political parties to commit to devising and implementing a national strategy to encourage employers to facilitate employees in working from home through 'e-working'.

Speaking today (Saturday, 12 May) at the Macra na Feirme AGM in Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ms. Buckley said that employers should be incentivised into allowing workers the option of 'e-working'.

'Work-life balance has been a buzz-phrase for a few years now, but the concept should not be discounted. It's widely accepted that working from home can bring huge benefits, helping workers to organise their time more efficiently, work more effectively and reduce the stress of commuting. Studies have also shown that by offering employees a flexible working environment - such as the option to work even part-time from the home – productivity and employee retention levels are increased while costs can be reduced,' she said.

Ms Buckley pointed out that giving people the opportunity to work from home would also be an effective way of allowing local people in rural areas the chance to work in the areas where they are living, providing them with more time to become involved in community life rather than wasting hours commuting.

'If more people were facilitated in this way, it would reduce the number of commuters on our roads, improve peoples' family life and would also mean that less people are wasting hours and hours per week stuck in their cars increasing carbon emissions and having a detrimental impact on the environment,' she said.

'While everybody pays lip service to balanced regional development, it has only had limited success. Yet if companies were to adopt a more enlightened approach in facilitating working from home, I believe they would benefit significantly in terms of staff retention and increased productivity,' she said.

Ms Buckley said that many employers and employees may not be aware of the fact that equipment provided to an employee by his/her employer is not assessed for tax as a benefit-in-kind so long as it is used primarily for business use. She pointed out that an employer can also provide expenses to cover costs such as heating and light, without the employee being taxed.

However, Ms Buckley said that employers were often reluctant to provide the opportunity for employees to work from home rather than from the traditional desk in the office, and she said that politicians should be looking at ways to encourage more employers to provide this option to employees.

'Since electioneering started, we have been hearing promises from politicians on almost every issue under the sun, but nobody has yet voiced any definite policies on promoting e-working. Apart from the obvious benefits to an employer such as the potential for increased productivity, enhanced personnel relations and advantages in terms of expansion and infrastructural issues, the net result of allowing more people to work from home would be a reduction in the number of commuters on our roads at peak traffic times,' she said.

'In terms of a strategy for the development of the workplace of the future, which does not necessarily involve hundreds of thousands of people getting into their cars every morning to travel to their place of work, it's important that employers are encouraged to look on e-working as a serious option. For this to happen, however, it's vital that we get leadership in this area from our politicians. Obviously there are infrastructural barriers, such as the lack of broadband, and addressing these issues would be a key part of such a strategy,' she concluded.

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