Reporting employer

Wilmol

I work in an office job where the employer is making everyone come in to the office even though 80% of the employees can perform the job from home as long as they have internet connection, however the employer is making everyone come in to work, use sanitizer and wear masks inside the office all day. The reason given is that we work in an industry which is deemed essential. Ok, I understand that construction workers cannot do their job through a laptop but why force office workers to go all the way to the office for no reason, just because we are in essential services industry. There is no VPN or anything else that is required to do the job and access company resources.

I want to know if I report the employer, then maybe they will change the attitude.

Don’t know if you have been reading the news over the last few days, there was a high profile case in the news.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40214393.html%3ftype=amp

In this case the claimant felt they had to leave their job, presumably for health reasons and claimed for unfair dismissal. It remains to be seen how this would have panned out if the claimant had continued to work there.

It is also worth considering that the claimant was able to get a job immediately and the payout was relatively small, it is fair to assume that it might not be the best career move if you intend to stay there.

gandalfio

Wilmol wrote: »

I work in an office job where the employer is making everyone come in to the office even though 80% of the employees can perform the job from home as long as they have internet connection, however the employer is making everyone come in to work, use sanitizer and wear masks inside the office all day. The reason given is that we work in an industry which is deemed essential. Ok, I understand that construction workers cannot do their job through a laptop but why force office workers to go all the way to the office for no reason, just because we are in essential services industry. There is no VPN or anything else that is required to do the job and access company resources.

I want to know if I report the employer, then maybe they will change the attitude.

Report them to the HSA and they'll sort it out.

gandalfio

gandalfio wrote: »

Report them to the HSA and they'll sort it out.

HSA give guidance and advice on wfh. They inspected our workplace to ensure protocols were in place to protect employees and the public, I’m not sure that they can dictate to an essential service who should and should not wfh. But I may be wrong.

TrixIrl

Do you have a union that can represent you as a group?
Or a formal grievance procedure?

If not and management are refusing to consider sensible proposals you may need to look at a WRC complaint. Use the transcript from the case during the week for buzzwords etc.