Recently, remote working has become a key consideration for many employers. Employees have chosen to work from home, whether that be from their employment locations or from other places all over the world. This has undeniably led to employers needing to consider the longer term impacts of this and how the landscape of working will change in the future.
Considerations for Employers
If employees who require immigration support seek to work outside of their country of employment, they are likely to be impacted from an immigration perspective if they decide to work remotely. These should be addressed prior to any change to their location.
Key considerations include:
In Ireland, employers are required to notify the Department of Employment, Trade and Enterprise if they have employees working from home whilst in State during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, these notifications are accepted on a blanket basis, as opposed to each individual employee. If employers are planning permanent work from home arrangements, future planning for regional hubs or offices should be considered and these locations should be added to the Trusted Partner Registration if applicable. Employees should also be aware of their individual obligation to notify the Immigration Service Delivery team if they change their residential address. If the employee holds an Irish Residence Permit, the employee must ensure that they take all the necessary steps to maintain and renew that permission. The employer should regularly review that their foreign national employee population retains the right to work and can support their population with this.
Critical Actions
Employers need to take steps to ensure that they are reviewing and capturing any critical actions, including:
The Impact of remote working in Ireland
In Ireland specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has moved the authorities towards a digitalisation of immigration services, including the introduction of electronic submission and issuance of employment permit applications , the online renewal of Irish Residence Permit applications in Dublin and various applications adjudicated by the Department of Justice being moved online .
Additionally, the Department of Justice strategy plan for 2021-2023 evidences a continued move in this direction with the online processing of applications, electronic issuance of approvals and the introduction of features such as chatbots.
Employment policy around the right to work remotely is also being reviewed by the Department of Employment, Trade and Enterprise and a public consultation is underway as a result of a recently published report. The report defines remote work quite broadly as an arrangement where work is fully or partially carried out of alternative worksite other than the default place of work. Potentially the Department could consider supporting remote working under a form of nomad visa permission, yet to be legislated for in Ireland.
Looking to the Future
As we start to see remote working become a more prevalent form of employment, some points to consider:
Employers should start to consider the long term implications of remote working and how they will support this in the future. Policy and strategies should be put in place now to assess, manage and monitor the remote working population to ensure compliance across tax, immigration and other legal aspects both within the employment country and the foreign jurisdiction. Using technology will significantly streamline the administrative burden and compliance risk that employers will face.
In terms of technology, Deloitte has developed a technology enabled solution to address your biggest questions. Deloitte’s Remote Work Assessment manages large volumes of employee requests in a simple three step process. The compliance engines powering it are designed to analyse compliance risks and streamline stakeholder decisions