Companies that intend to continue to offer their employees the possibility of working remotely after the Covid pandemic has ended, must comply with the guidelines laid down in Law 28/2020, which recently came into force.
Therefore, these obligations do not apply to companies that will return to a situation where workers work entirely in the office after the pandemic.
The main points
- The law applies to employees who work at least 30% of their time at a distance over a period of 3 months;
- These workers should have exactly the same rights as workers who work in the office;
- The employer is obliged to reimburse costs necessary to carry out the telework correctly;
- Working remotely is voluntary and reversible for both parties, so if the employer or employee prefers the execution of the work in the office, this should be respected;
- However, it should be borne in mind that the employer must be prepared to meet the employee’s requests in terms of finding the right balance between private life and work, and this certainly applies to employees with children up to the age of 12 (always within reason and in accordance with the nature of the work);
- An individual written agreement must be signed with the employee concerned before 24/12/2020 and this must be registered (EuroEconomics can help you set up a framework and register);
- The employee remains obliged to register working hours (clocking in and out);
- If there are works councils or employee representatives within the company, other guidelines apply. In that case, EuroEconomics will inform you separately.