PL GOV wants to adopt a draft amendment to the labor code regarding remote work
The government plans to introduce a definition of remote work into the Labor Code, to define the rules for its entrusting, performance, and the possibility of withdrawing from this form of performing duties, results from the list of legislative and program works of the Council of Ministers. The adoption by the Council of Ministers of the draft amendment to the labor code in this regard is planned for Q3.
Currently, remote work is used temporarily during the epidemic and 3 months after its cancellation on the basis of the Act of March 2, 2020 on special solutions related to the prevention, counteracting and combating COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them.
Due to the above, there were numerous demands from both employees and employers' organizations, who saw the advantages of this form of work, to introduce remote work as a permanent solution, i.e. under the Act of June 26, 1974 - Labor Code [...] enabling the parties to the employment relationship to use this form of work also after the cancellation of the epidemic announced due to COVID-19 in the territory of the Republic of Poland.
For this reason, it is planned to undertake legislative actions in this area.
The binding provisions of the Labor Code provide for the possibility of performing work outside the workplace in the form of teleworking, but in a less flexible way than the aforementioned regulation on remote work.
The most important regulations in the bill consist of:
- introducing a definition of remote work, according to which remote work will be work consisting in performing work entirely or partially at the employee's place of residence or in another place agreed by the employee and the employer, in particular with the use of means of direct remote communication;
- assuming that remote work may be agreed upon concluding an employment contract or already during employment (in the latter case, remote work could be performed at the initiative of the employer or employee);
- enabling the order by the employer in special cases (i.e. during the period of the state of emergency, epidemic threat or epidemic state and within 3 months after their cancellation, or when it is necessary due to the employer's obligation to provide the employee with safe and hygienic working conditions, if, for reasons beyond the control of the employer, provision of these conditions in the current workplace of the employee is temporarily not possible) - performing remote work by the employee, subject to the employee's prior declaration of having the local and technical conditions to perform work in this form
- regulating the obligation to define the principles of remote work in:
a: agreement concluded between the employer and the company trade union (company trade organizations),
b: regulations established by the employer - if no agreement is reached with the enterprise trade union (enterprise trade organizations) and if no enterprise trade union operates at the employer (in this case, the regulations would be established after consultation with employee representatives);
- enabling remote work to be performed at the employee's request, also in the case when no agreement or regulations were concluded, specifying the rules of remote work;
- introducing the possibility of a binding withdrawal from remote work by the employer or employee - within 3 months from the date of its commencement;
- regulating the employer's obligations towards an employee performing remote work (including providing the employee with materials and tools necessary to perform remote work, covering costs directly related to remote work) and granting the parties the right to conclude an agreement on the use of private tools and materials by the employee remote work;
- standardization of the rules of employee control by the employer at the place of performing remote work;
- establishing a prohibition of discrimination against an employee performing remote work;
- guaranteeing the employee performing remote work the right to stay on the premises of the workplace on the terms adopted for all employees;
- introduction of specific rules in the field of occupational health and safety;
- enabling the employee to submit all applications for which the provisions of the Labor Code provide for a written form, in paper or electronic form.
The proposed regulations will replace the provisions of the Labor Code on teleworking, which will be repealed. Some legal solutions regulating teleworking have been incorporated into the new code provisions on remote work. As a result, it is expected that the possibility of performing work outside the workplace will be made more flexible and that work in the form of remote work will be disseminated, also after the current state of the epidemic is canceled.
At the beginning of April, Iwona Michałek, Deputy Minister of Development, Labor and Technology, informed that the Ministry was preparing the assumptions for the act on regulating remote work in the Labor Code.
Earlier in February, the Entrepreneurship Council called for the introduction of regulations enabling flexible and effective use of remote work. She postulated, inter alia, resignation from the obligation to specify a specific place of remote work, limiting employee documentation to electronic documentation and leaving companies with detailed decisions on equipping employees with the necessary equipment.
Source: ISBnews
