Under the 2023 Act and the Code of Practice: 

• An employee must provide written notice to their employer at least eight weeks prior to the proposed start of a remote working arrangement, giving reasons for the request.  Reasons include personal or domestic circumstances, neurodiversity or special medical needs, among others. 
• The employer must respond within four weeks, or twelve if further assessment is needed, and must be objective, fair, and reasonable in their decision. 
• If the request is declined, alternative flexible working arrangements, such as flexitime or compressed hours should be considered.  
• Subject to how the proposal is presented, employers may need to treat it as a request for a flexible working arrangement and follow the prescribed steps which reflect, for the most part, the procedures in place for making and considering a request for a remote working arrangement.  
• The employer must consider their own needs, the employee's needs, and potential health and safety issues associated with remote work. Employees with disabilities may use this to argue that remote work facilities or equipment, not available in the workplace, enable them to perform their duties competently.
• Employees have the right to lodge complaints with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) if they believe the employer has not complied with the law. However, the WRC only investigates the employer's decision-making process, not the decision's merits. 

When an employee requests remote work, they must agree in writing to adhere to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and assist the employer in meeting its obligations under this Act. The request can be made from their first day of employment, but remote work can't start until six months of service are completed. Employers have four weeks to respond, extendable to twelve if needed for validation. The 2020 Health and Safety Authority (HSA) guidelines on remote working help employers prepare, highlighting the need for a risk assessment and safety statement identifying hazards in the remote workplace and setting out how the employer will address them. Failure to comply can result in severe penalties, up to 3 years in prison and a maximum penalty of €3m. 

For employees with disabilities, the HSA has not issued specific guidelines for remote work, it's the employee's decision whether or not to disclose a disability. If a disability is disclosed, it would be prudent for employers to arrange for an occupational health practitioner to conduct a needs assessment to understand the employee's duties and any challenges presented by their disability.

Employers have a legal requirement to inform employees of changes to their employment terms by the date they become effective.  The 2023 Act requires a written agreement between the parties if remote work is approved, which can be an opportunity for employers to limit their exposure to liability by incorporating into the agreement any arrangements made during the risk assessment including, for example:

• details on the proper use of work equipment provided, 
• any training to be provided, 
• the workspace location including the employee's agreement only to use that workspace, 
• the agreed arrangements for managing connectivity issues so that they can be resolved without the need for the employee to move from the agreed workspace location or to agree an alternative workspace location in such circumstances. 

The agreement should also detail the employee's duties while working remotely, as the employer is entitled to terminate the arrangement if it has reasonable grounds for believing the employee is not fulfilling those duties in accordance with the agreement.

The 2023 Act sets out several grounds for employers to terminate a remote working arrangement or a flexible working arrangement for caring purposes.  For remote working, each of those grounds may be applied to any arrangement in place before the 2023 Act was introduced. Employers must notify employees in writing of the intent to terminate in advance and employees have 7 days to respond. The employer then decides whether to reverse the decision. The Code, aimed at ensuring fairness, unfortunately does not regulate this stage, risking a lack of employer impartiality in considering the employee's response. The response could be viewed as an appeal against the decision to terminate the arrangement, potentially leading to legal challenges based on the principles of natural justice and "nemo judex in sua causa" (no one should be a judge in their own cause). Larger organisations may have enough personnel to handle the process impartially, but for smaller firms, the same person terminating the arrangement may also consider the appeal, raising concerns about impartiality.