in which cases it applies and what can be claimed from companies

Last Thursday the Telework Act. With conflicting opinions, some Doubts Regarding its application and the new regulations that attempt to regulate remote work, these are the keys to understanding it.

The first thing to know is that the application of the rule was momentarily suspended by the Ministry of Labor in the case of employees who have become home office during the coronavirus pandemic.

Of course, that includes a lot of people, as the 40s deposited a lot of jobs inside. But the law comes into force for the cases in which teleworking was carried out before March of last year.

But, for cases where it applies, these are the main points.

Rights

Salary. In the first place, the law poses an important salary question: the worker has the same rights and obligations as a person face to face, which means that he cannot be paid less.

Digital disconnection. This is a very sensitive subject because the boundaries between work and personal hours are much more blurred in remote work.

Article 5 of Law 27555 establishes that the worker “You will have the right not to be contacted and to disconnect digital devices and / or information and communication technologies outside their working hours and during periods of leave ”.

In addition, it then adds that the employee cannot be penalized for having made use of this right and that the employer cannot require him to perform tasks, nor send you communications, by any means, outside of working hours.

The situations in which bosses send WhatsApp messages to their employees with work requests are repeated more and more, which is why this is a key point of the law.

And here another factor appears: when working on another time zone, that is to say to or from another country, the employer must respect the rest times even if they do not coincide with those of his location.

Of course, the rule considers exceptions when the contact is for an urgent matter.

Child care and other cases. On the other hand, workers who are alone or jointly responsible for caring for minors under the age of thirteen, disabled or the elderly people they live withThey will have the right to have schedules compatible with the care tasks and to interrupt the day. And that doesn’t require any special procedure or minimum notice period.

Reversibility. The employer can demand the end of teleworking and ask them to come back. But you must have a reasonable reason to support the request.

Elements of work. The employer must provide equipment, such as computer hardware and software, so that the worker can perform his tasks. In addition, you will need to assume the installation costs, maintenance and repair, or even compensate the employee for the use of his own resources.

And here’s something big that comes from 2012, when the workplace accident regulations were established:The employer must provide an ergonomic chair, fire extinguisher, first aid kit and even a mouse pad if needed.

Cases where there is no teleworking

Of course, there are some tasks that cannot be done remotely. This covers article 2 of the law, which mentions the National Administration of Laboratories and Institutes of Health “Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán ”(ANLIS); the National Administration of Drugs, Food and Medical Technology (Anmat); the Federal Security Forces; the armed forces; the Federal Penitentiary Service; health workers and the health system; personnel from the Ranger Corps and the Federal Fire Management System; the National Directorate of Migration; and the National Register of Persons (Renaper) ”.

And for this case, he considers the relevant support: “In all cases where the modality of work face to face of teams or sectors is established, the organization must have an action protocol which guarantee health conditions for the staff within the framework of the sanitary measures in force and those which will be dictated in the future ”, provides for Article 3 of the measure.

In addition, the judiciary, the legislature, the provinces, the city of Buenos Aires and the municipalities are invited to adopt similar measures, that is, to carry out remote work.

Also, article 4 of administrative decision 280/2021 “recommend the private sector the adoption of measures in accordance with those established therein “.

“The dynamic situation produced by the coronavirus pandemic and its possible derivations in the workplace make it necessary to adapt the existing measures to provide the best protection to those involved, avoiding as far as possible that the labor relations and the provision of services of the national state are affected ”, states the rule in its recitals.

Regulation of the law