The 2019 Work-life Balance Directive creates a new right for parents and carers to request flexible working arrangements for caring purposes. The significance of this innovation has been heightened by the pandemic because it includes the right to request remote working arrangements. This article undertakes a contextual and comparative analysis in order to understand better the strengths, limitations and opportunities created by the Directive. It compares the right to request flexible working arrangements to provisions found in existing Directives on parental leave and part-time work, as well as protections that may be derived from EU equality law. It looks also at examples of existing legislation in two jurisdictions, the Netherlands and Australia, in order to illustrate the options available to Member States when they implement this right within domestic law. The article concludes that the full potential of this right can only be understood when it is viewed as part of a wider range of legal provisions that assist in the reconciliation of work and family life.

2019 年工作与生活平衡指令为父母和照顾者创造了一项新的权利，可以出于照顾目的要求灵活的工作安排。大流行加剧了这种创新的重要性，因为它包括请求远程工作安排的权利。本文进行了上下文和比较分析，以便更好地了解该指令带来的优势、局限性和机会。它将要求灵活工作安排的权利与现有指令中关于育儿假和兼职工作的规定以及可能源自欧盟平等法的保护进行了比较。它还研究了荷兰和澳大利亚这两个司法管辖区的现有立法示例，以说明成员国在国内法范围内实施这项权利时可用的选择。该文章的结论是，只有将其视为有助于协调工作和家庭生活的更广泛法律条款的一部分，才能理解这项权利的全部潜力。