Your Rights at Work as a Parent or Carer: The Work Life Balance Act, Explained

In my last post, When it Seems that the World Fails Us as a Family, I wrote about the second job that parents of autistic children do in the gaps of their first one. One of the few places the law has started to catch up with that reality is the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023.

A lot of what is circulating about this Act online is wrong, including some confident-sounding summaries that say medical care leave is paid. It isn't. So here is a plain, checked guide to what the Act actually gives you, what it doesn't, and how to use it.

A quick note before we start: this is general information, not legal advice. Rights change, so check the current position with Citizens Information or the Workplace Relations Commission before you rely on it.

1. Leave for medical care: 5 days, unpaid

Since 3 July 2023, employees can take up to five days of leave in any 12 months to provide care or support for a serious medical reason.

• It is unpaid. Your employer does not have to pay you for these days.

• It is for someone else's care, not your own illness. The person can be your child, your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, your parent or grandparent, your brother or sister, or someone who lives in your household.

• It must be a serious medical reason needing significant care or support. The law does not list specific appointments, so whether a particular appointment counts depends on the circumstances.

• You don't need to give notice in an emergency, but you should tell your employer as soon as you reasonably can, and your employer can ask for a written confirmation of why you took it.

Why it still matters: before 2023, there was no legal right to this time at all. For many families it was annual leave, unpaid leave at the employer's discretion, or calling in sick. Now it is a protected right, and you can't be penalised for using it.

Don't confuse it with sick pay. The figures you may have seen, 70% of your wage up to €110 a day, belong to statutory sick pay under the Sick Leave Act 2022. That is for your own illness, needs a medical certificate, and is currently five days a year.

2. Right to request flexible working

Since March 2024, these people can ask for flexible working for caring reasons:

• Parents of a child under 12, or under 16 if the child has a disability or long-term illness.

• People providing, or about to provide, significant care to someone with a serious medical need, such as a family member or someone they live with.

Flexible working can mean changed start and finish times, compressed hours, reduced hours or other changes to your working pattern.

• It is a right to ask, not a right to get. Your employer must consider your request against both your needs and the needs of the business, and follow the WRC's Code of Practice.

• They must reply in writing within four weeks, and can extend that to a maximum of eight weeks if they need more time.

• If they refuse, they must give you their reasons. You can raise a complaint with the WRC if the process wasn't followed properly.

• You can ask from day one of a job, but you need six months' continuous service before the arrangement can start.

3. Right to request remote working

Separately, every employee, not just parents and carers, can ask to work from home or another location, either fully or partly. The same basics apply: you can ask from day one, the arrangement can start after six months, and your employer must give you a reasoned decision within four weeks.

4. Domestic violence leave: 5 days, fully paid

Since 27 November 2023, any employee who is experiencing domestic violence, or supporting a relevant person who is, can take up to five days of leave in 12 months, paid at their full normal rate. There is no minimum service requirement. It is there to give people time to get medical help, legal advice, counselling or safety, and it should be handled confidentially.

5. You can't be penalised

Your employer must not treat you badly for using or asking for these rights. That includes dismissal, demotion, losing out on a promotion, or any other unfair treatment. Complaints go to the Workplace Relations Commission.

What this Act does not change

A few other entitlements are often mixed up with this Act. They come from other laws:

• Parent's leave: 9 weeks per parent, to be taken in the child's first two years, since August 2024. Your employer doesn't pay you, but you may get Parent's Benefit from the State.

• Parental leave: 26 weeks, unpaid, per child under 12.

• Carer's leave: a longer period of unpaid leave, from 13 weeks up to 104 weeks, to provide full-time care for someone who needs it.

If you are autistic or disabled yourself, your strongest workplace right is usually different again: the right to reasonable accommodation under the Employment Equality Acts. That can include changes to hours, environment or the way work is done.

How to use these rights in practice

From the kitchen table, here is what I'd suggest:

• Put it in writing. For flexible or remote working, send a written request that says what you're asking for, when you'd like it to start, and why. You don't have to share a diagnosis.

• Make it easy to say yes. Say how the work will still get done: who covers what, how you'll stay reachable, how it could be reviewed after three months.

• Keep a simple record of the dates you take medical care leave and the reason. It protects you if questions come later.

• Ask for a trial if your employer is hesitant. A trial period is often easier to agree than a permanent change.

• Talk to your union or Citizens Information if a request is refused without real reasons, or if you feel you're being treated differently since you asked.

For principals and employers

Schools and other employers do not need to wait to be asked. A short, written policy on these rights, a named person to handle requests, meetings scheduled with working parents in mind, and a habit of saying yes where the work allows it will do more for staff wellbeing than almost anything else that costs so little.

A first step, not the finish line

Five unpaid days won't cover an assessment process, a reduced timetable or a summer without childcare. But the Act matters, because it says something new in Irish law: care is part of working life, not an interruption to it. Use it, ask for more, and don't let anyone tell you the days are paid when they aren't.

Sources: Citizens Information on unpaid leave for medical care, the right to request flexible working, the right to request remote working, domestic violence leave and parent's leave; Workplace Relations Commission guidance on leave for medical care. Correct as of October 2026.

Elaine Walsh is the founder of Autism & Me (autismandme.ie), a Waterford-based neuroinclusive education consultancy. She writes here on Universal Design, inclusion and Irish education, from the twin vantage points of the classroom and the kitchen table.