The regulation of structural telework in Iberoamérica

Abstract

The pandemic occasioned by COVID-19 has caused, as a sudden and unpredictable need, the introduction of teleworking in the productive systems of most of the countries. Many States have had to resort to old and outdated norms that did not assume the few guarantees of the existing international and supranational instruments. However, other countries have taken advantage of the health emergency situation to reform and update their telework regulations. The purpose of this contribution is to analyze the new regulations that emerged during the pandemic and to carry out a general assessment of their contents to check if they are adapted to the demands and recommendations that, in a digital society, should characterize teleworking.

The purpose of this contribution is to analyze the new rules that have arisen from the pandemic and to make a general assessment of their contents to check whether they are adapted to the requirements and recommendations that, in a digital society, should characterize teleworking. To do this we make a tour of the international legal system in order to identify the instruments, rules and principles that can help us to outline the basic institutions that should support the regulation of telework to, then, make an assessment of the laws that in recent months have been implemented in some of the countries that make up the Ibero-American space (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Portugal) to deal with this reality. 

The analysis carried out shows that, even with few international references, the different legal systems have been able to articulate guaranteeing regulations that observe the few existing guidelines: voluntariness, reversibility, and an important set of rights for teleworkers. However, there are pending issues that need to be addressed in greater depth: those related to the right to occupational health and digital rights, as well as the development of the institution through collective bargaining, a mechanism that could balance the different interests and ensure a greater acceptance of these regulations.