HR for fully remote Irish teams
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Running HR for a fully remote Irish team uses the same legal framework as any Irish employment — the obligations around pay, leave, contracts and tax don't change because your staff work from home. What changes is how you manage compliance, communication and culture without a shared physical space.
Employment contracts still apply in full
Every employee needs a written statement of core terms within five days of starting, and a full written contract within one month. For remote workers, the contract should explicitly state their home address (or a defined remote location) as their place of work. If you later agree a hybrid arrangement, update the contract or issue a written variation.
Ireland's Right to Request Remote Work legislation gives employees a formal process to request remote or hybrid working. You are not obliged to approve every request, but you must respond in writing and give a reason if you refuse. Keep a record of all requests and decisions — this protects you if a dispute arises.
Payroll works the same way, wherever staff sit
Irish payroll obligations do not change for remote employees. You still deduct income tax (20% on earnings up to roughly €44,000 for a single person, 40% above that), USC across its bands (0.5%, 2%, 3% and 8% depending on earnings), and PRSI at the Class A rate — around 4.1% for the employee and 11.15% for you as the employer. Tax credits, not a personal allowance, reduce each employee's income tax liability, so every employee should have a current Tax Credit Certificate from Revenue on file.
You must submit a payroll submission to Revenue via ROS on or before each payday — there is no grace period, and late submissions attract penalties. If your team is growing quickly or spread across different pay frequencies, a dedicated payroll tool or outsourced provider reduces the risk of missed submissions.
Pension auto-enrolment under the My Future Fund scheme is being introduced from 2026. This will require employers to enrol eligible employees automatically and make employer contributions alongside employee and state contributions. If you haven't already, it is worth reviewing your current pension arrangements now so you are not scrambling when enrolment obligations begin to apply to your workforce.
Health and safety obligations extend to home offices
This is the area most remote employers underestimate. Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, your duty of care extends to an employee's home working environment. In practice this means:
- Carrying out a workstation risk assessment for each remote employee (a self-assessment questionnaire is acceptable for home workers, but you need a record that it happened).
- Having a policy that sets out expectations for safe home working — adequate lighting, a proper chair, screen height, and so on.
- Providing or reimbursing equipment where necessary to meet those standards.
You do not need to physically visit every employee's home. A documented self-assessment process, reviewed and signed off by the employee, is the standard approach. Store these records and revisit them when employees move address or when their role changes significantly.
Data protection and IT security need explicit policies
Remote teams access company systems, client data and internal communications from home networks and personal devices, which creates data protection risk. Under GDPR (applicable in Ireland via the Data Protection Act 2018), you remain responsible for how personal data is processed by your employees, regardless of where they are sitting.
At a minimum, you should have:
- A remote working policy that covers acceptable use of devices, network security expectations (VPN use, password management), and what to do in the event of a data breach or lost device.
- Clear rules on personal versus company devices — a Bring Your Own Device policy if you permit it, or a requirement to use company-issued hardware.
- Regular reminders to staff, since informal home environments make people less vigilant than they might be in an office.
The Data Protection Commission can and does investigate employers following employee-related breaches, so this is not a box-ticking exercise.
Managing leave and absence without physical oversight
Statutory annual leave in Ireland is four working weeks per year, calculated on the basis of time worked. For remote teams, the absence of a shared physical space can make it easier for employees to under-use leave or to work while nominally on annual leave. Neither is good for wellbeing or your liability position.
Use a system — even a shared calendar or a simple leave management tool — that records requests, approvals and balances. This creates an audit trail, ensures leave is taken (you have an obligation to facilitate it), and reduces disputes at the end of the leave year.
Sick leave is governed by the Sick Leave Act 2022, which provides for a minimum number of statutory sick days with pay. Keep absence records for remote employees just as you would for office-based staff. If patterns emerge, address them through your normal absence management process — working remotely does not change your right, or responsibility, to manage attendance.
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