Following Commissioner Jørgensen’s call for people to save energy by working from home, the European Commission now has a responsibility to protect workers’ right to disconnect.
While this call can help reduce energy use, it must not come at the expense of workers’ rights or shift costs onto workers who are already bearing the brunt of rising energy prices.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) says the Commission must now follow through by urgently finalising legislation to regulate telework and enforce workers’ right to disconnect, after launching a second-stage consultation last summer.
The Commission’s own research shows that people working from home face increased mental and physical risks due to “the risk of an intensification of work, overtime, extended availability and work-life conflict.”
People regularly working from home are at least four times more likely to work in their free time than people working from their employers’ premises, according to the latest European Working Conditions Survey. Women are significantly more likely to be affected than men.
The ETUC says the forthcoming Quality Jobs Act must include legislation which ensures:
- The enforcement of workers’ existing right not to be contacted outside agreed hours;
- Employers are responsible for all costs linked to telework including equipment, software, energy, connectivity, training, and any other expenses, so that workers are not left paying out of pocket to do their jobs;
- Workers retain the right to a permanent workplace at the employer’s premises;
- Teleworkers receive the same rights, including pay, training, health and safety standards, career development, and trade union rights as on-site workers;
- Telework does not reinforce unpaid care burdens on women or isolate vulnerable groups;
- Monitoring by employers is limited to lawful and proportionate purposes; intrusive tools are prohibited; and collective agreements and GDPR are fully respected.
More broadly, the EU must back this with a wider set of policies rather than shifting costs onto workers.This includes the activation of crisis management tools to protect jobs and incomes, strong price controls to shield households from excessive energy costs, support for collective solutions at workplace level and investment in energy-efficient housing.
ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:
“The ability to work from home can be beneficial to workers and employers, especially in the situation we are facing today, but only if it is voluntary for workers and respects their rights.
“No worker should have to pay the costs of doing their job from home. It’s right that governments and employers work to save energy and control prices but employers must cover all related expenses.
“The pandemic demonstrated the dangers of unregulated telework. All the EU’s research shows that it blurred the lines between people’s work and private life and took a heavy toll on people’s mental health.
“Having made the call for people to work from home en masse again, the Commission now has a responsibility to ensure the mistakes of the past are not repeated by putting in place common sense rules for telework.
“The way people work is changing rapidly and the law must catch up to ensure that people working from home have the same rights and protection as everyone else. Any introduction or expansion of telework must be negotiated with trade unions to safeguard workers’ rights and ensure fair conditions.”