{"id":131081,"date":"2025-10-19T00:17:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/131081\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T00:17:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:17:17","slug":"ucd-dispute-over-new-hybrid-working-policy-referred-to-workplace-relations-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/131081\/","title":{"rendered":"UCD dispute over new hybrid-working policy referred to Workplace Relations Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

A survey of a cross-section of employees found that just over 63pc felt that a requirement to work in the office three days a week would have a negative effect.<\/p>\n

About 30pc felt there would be no change, while 6pc said there would be a positive impact.<\/p>\n

Siptu official Cathie Shiels said it has emerged that some workers are commuting from Cork, Longford and Galway to the campus in Dublin 4.<\/p>\n

She said there is widespread dissatisfaction with policy changes that mean staff must work on site for three days a week. Before this, she said, the policy was very flexible and managers decided arrangements with groups of staff.<\/p>\n

Siptu has referred the dispute to the Workplace Relations Commission.<\/p>\n

The survey found that some workers moved outside Dublin after the pandemic as they only needed to work from the office two days a week.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The dispute has been referred to the Workplace Relations Commission<\/p>\n

\u201cMy commute is over two hours,\u201d said one staff member who responded to the survey. \u201cHalf of my students are online, so never visit UCD. I would be travelling over four hours a day to tick a box.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy time would be better spent doing my work from home. My mental health and physical health would also be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the disincentives to working on campus listed by some staff were alleged inadequate parking, poor public transport and food options, and cold offices.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The UCD campus in Belfield, Dublin 4<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Saturday, October 18<\/p>\n

Some said the policy changes will cause staff to look for jobs elsewhere. One worker said: \u201cShoehorning staff on-site three days a week is short-sighted in a tight labour market.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, some felt clarifications from management about their start and end times and the distribution of on-site days was an improvement.<\/p>\n

Some described the new policy as a \u201cblunt tool\u201d, saying their work can be performed effectively remotely and they see no business need for the mandate.<\/p>\n

\n

I plan to treat my team like grown-ups<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Others said a successful, flexible, hybrid model that worked for years is being dismantled for no good reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an agreement in place for my team and approved by my manager, but it was overruled,\u201d said a worker.<\/p>\n

Some workers said a \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d approach does not take vast differences in roles into account. They said approvals for the new arrangements for individual workers will depend on managers and this could create a \u201cpostcode lottery\u201d of working conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI plan to treat my team like grown-ups and allow them the same flexibility as they have now,\u201d said a manager. \u201cI think they can make good decisions about when they need to be on campus and when they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recurring theme in survey responses is perceived favouritism for academic staff, who are alleged to have more flexibility.<\/p>\n

Some workers felt they had to disclose details of sensitive personal circumstances in order to apply for a new working arrangement under the policy. Others want flexi-time arrangements to be included in the policy.<\/p>\n

A UCD spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A survey of a cross-section of employees found that just over 63pc felt that a requirement to work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[43327,79,52,18,19,17,15913,1737],"class_list":{"0":"post-131081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-anne-marie-walsh","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-ucd","15":"tag-working-from-home"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}