21 October 2020
On 20 October Luxembourg’s social partners including the LCGB and OGBL trade unions and the UEL employer’s body signed a new cross-industry teleworking agreement. In this way, the social partners avoid the need for the government to adapt its 2006 legislative framework. They have as such ‘modernized’ the framework and are asking the government to give the agreement mandatory generalized scope.
19 October 2020
At a time when many companies have begun to think about adopting telework, or remote work, more widely, Planet Labor has studied the way in which 11 European countries deal with this subject. Discover our exclusive comparative table, which has been put together with the help of our colleagues at mind Research.
5 October 2020
On 04 October, in an interview with the weekly publication Bild am Sonntag, Hubertus Heil, SPD Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs announced that the draft legislation on remote working was finally completed and sent for consultation to the relevant ministries. In principle, the introduction of a right to remote working forms the cornerstone of this future legislation and it...
22 September 2020
On 22 September, Spain’s government approved a decree-law on remote working, the major thrusts of which were negotiated with trade union and employers organizations. The text defines remote work and provides a framework for ways in which; businesses can make the means for remote working available, compensation can meet the related expenses incurred, and employees’ working activity can be managed. The text provides for a transition phase as it enters into legal force, so that companies which have already...
22 September 2020
On 22 September, Medef, France’s largest employers’ organization, announced it had agreed to open negotiations on remote working. Following six meetings with the social partners that sought to establish a joint diagnosis on the lessons to be learned from recent developments in remote working (c.f. article No.11989) the employers’ organization has finally agreed to a unanimously trade union organisation backed request to negotiate. There is “room for an agreement” the leader of the...
21 September 2020
On Friday 18 September, Austria’s minister for labour Christine Aschbacher launched efforts to draw up a directive on remote working, which should be ready in March next year. Social partners are closely involved in the process, which involves the establishment of several working groups on the topic. The need for such a directive has arisen due to the period of lockdown following the Covid-19 outbreak, during which the proportion people working remotely – or teleworking – temporarily increased from 10% to...
9 September 2020
Provisions in the law tackling Covid-19 (c.f. article No.11710) allowed companies recourse to the mass use of remote working for a period of 6 months. These derogations ended on 04 September 2020. In order to allow companies to continue having employees work remotely, a new law on the posting of workers, which came into force on 05 September allows employers recourse to remote working until the end of the Covid-19 epidemic and up to 3 months after this period. It is up to employers to determine the length of the...
7 September 2020
A revision of the law on home-based work is expected to soon reach Hungary’s Parliament. The changes intend for home-based to require mutual agreement between employers and employees. In other words, employers would no longer be able to unilaterally order employees to work at home, as was previously the case (up to a cap of 44 days per year). Another important change is that employers will be able to compensate employees for expenses incurred, the value of which could not exceed 10% of the current minimum salary, i.e. HUF 16,100 (€50). Employers will have to continue to provide staff with the equipment they need to work at home, and to...
27 August 2020
We reported in June that this initiative was in the pipeline (see article n°12024). At the end of July, MEP Alex Saliba, from Malta’s Labour Party, put forward a draft resolution on the right to disconnect (here). If adopted with the same legal regime, the resolution will require the European Commission to present a proposal for a directive on the right to disconnect and provide justification if it does not do so. In line with the requirements for the European Parliament when exercising its right of initiative,...
24 August 2020
A law regulating remote working or telework was passed by the Argentinian congress and published in the country’s official gazette on 14th August, with the aim of clarifying the grey areas that exist in the current legislation. As elsewhere, the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdown completely upended the way people work from one day to the next, forcing many workers in Argentina to work from home. Both the governing majority and opposition in the country agreed on the need for regulation, but it has attracted much criticism. As the text states, the new regulation will only come into force 90 days after the end of lockdown. The...
