Adopted with the aim of avoiding agglomerations in companies and offices during the most critical period of the covid-19 pandemic, teleworking (or home office) can gain more prominence in labor arrangements with the edition of Provisional Measure 1108/22, published on Monday. Tuesday (28) in the Official Gazette of the Union.
According to the Ministry of Labor, the regulation provides that the modality aims to “modernize the existing regulation in the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT)”, in addition to “correcting regulatory aspects that the massive use of teleworking during the pandemic of covid-19 has shown, such as, for example, increasing the possibilities of hybrid teleworking regimes”.
According to the folder, telework (or remote work) is characterized as “provision of services outside the company’s premises, in a preponderant or hybrid way, which, by its nature, cannot be characterized as external work”.
production or task
According to the new rules, it is possible to hire telework by journey; by production; or task, allowing, depending on the contract, the control of working hours or flexibility in the execution of tasks.
“It will also be feasible for the telework contract to occur regularly at the workplace for specific activities”, details the Ministry of Labor through its website.
The MP provides that telework must be expressly included in an individual employment contract, and that this contract may provide for the hours and means of communication between employee and employer, provided that legal rest periods are ensured.
The employer may, at its discretion, change the face-to-face work regime to telework or remote work, in addition to determining the return to the face-to-face work regime, regardless of the existence of individual or collective agreements, exempting the prior registration of the change in the individual employment contract. work.
This change, however, must be notified to the employee at least 48 hours in advance, “in writing or electronically”.
Equipment and infrastructure
The MP adds that “provisions regarding responsibility for the acquisition, maintenance or supply of technological equipment and the necessary and adequate infrastructure for the provision of remote work and the provisions regarding the reimbursement of expenses borne by the employee will be provided for in a written contract, signed in advance. or within 30 days from the date of change in the work regime”.
If the employee does not have the equipment or infrastructure necessary to provide the service, the employer may provide the equipment on a “leasing basis” (free loan) and pay for the infrastructure services, “which will not characterize a salary nature”. In addition, the period of the normal working day will be computed as “working time available to the employer”, in the impossibility of offering these conditions via a lending regime.
The MP clarifies that the time spent using technological equipment and the necessary infrastructure, as well as software, digital tools or even internet applications used for remote work outside the employee’s normal workday, “does not constitute time available, regime of readiness or on-call, unless there is a provision in an individual agreement or in a collective bargaining agreement”.
Finally, the MP provides that the adoption of the telework regime can be extended to interns and apprentices.
