The Executive Power regulated the law that regulates teleworking and detailed a series of concepts that mark the minimum conditions “that a contract between employer and employee must have” for this type of employment relationship, as well as making explicit the “hybrid” model of work and implements new tools to mark working hours.
Labor lawyer Juan Diego Menghi, partner of the Adders Legal & Business study, explained to The Observer what this decree “complements” the law published in August, which had “gaps.” The first is the regulation of “hybrid” teleworking, or partialmarked in article 1 of the decree, for which the parties they must agree on face-to-face and virtual working days, and their schedules.
Also emphasized is the “free will of the parties” in labor arrangements, Menghi continued, for which both employer and employee must show their agreement on aspects of the employment relationship.
The law states that there must be eight hours of disconnection for the workerin which “you have the right not to be contacted” and “you cannot be penalized” for itAdders’ attorney said. The decree mandates that from now on the parties they must mark what the hours of disconnection will be.
What’s more, the new regulation allows the entire hybrid employment contract to be governed by the teleworking regulationswhen before the face-to-face days were governed by traditional legislation, and the virtual ones by the new regulations.
Contract
The August law indicates in its article 5 that “The teleworker and the employer must agree at the beginning or during the term of the employment relationship on the teleworking modality”. The decree, for its part, “gives content to the contract”, Menghi detailed.
From now on, according to article 3 of the decree, an employment contract that implements teleworking must have: will of both parties, “the place or places from which the telework will be provided”the organization of the format if it is partial, the working hours or rangesthe rest and disconnection timesa “time and attendance registration system” of the employer (if any), and “The form of provision of the information technologies necessary for the development of teleworking”.
Adaptation to the new times
Of these points, one of the problems since the implementation of the standard, and since the coronavirus pandemic led to teleworking being necessary in more jobs, was the attendance and time registration system, because there was no labor regulation for the employer to control remotely if the worker complied with his schedule. Now, “the parties can agree on a system”, which “cannot affect the privacy” of the employee, the lawyer said.
Another of the characteristics that, according to Menghi, teleworking put in check was regulation of the safety and health of workerssomething that the employer used to control in his office, but that couldn’t see with the clerk out of it. The law determines that the employer is “still responsible” for ensuring the safety and health of their employeeand you must insert the necessary mechanisms in your company’s health and safety commission.
For this, the work must inspect the place agreed by the employee to work. “If you do not allow entry to your home, the company must notify the Ministry of Labor, which may request a court order to enter”said the Labor lawyer, who added that “if a breach of security is registered” it will be possible to break with the telework modality. On this point, Menghi criticized that it does not detail what the breaches may be, so it is a “very open” regulations.
As stated in article 12 of the law published in August, the company is responsible for providing the necessary tools for the teleworker, and also for their maintenance. The provision of materials can be agreed upon by both parties, but if a consensus is not reached, the law indicates that “The employer must provide the equipment, supplies and services and other tools necessary for the development of teleworking”.
