For workers, important issues regarding remote work include occupational safety, defining costs, privacy rights, and the right to disconnect. Employers will utilize this model when and if remote work fits into the company’s business model, some of the highlights from the conference on the future of remote work held on Friday in Rijeka.
The conference was held as part of the DEVOTE project – Developing of teleworking future, conducted by the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP) in collaboration with the Oil Industry Union (SING) and the Norwegian Employers’ Association (NHO).
Discussions focused on defining the institute of remote work, aiming to prepare guidelines for amending the legislative framework based on social dialogue and more such discussions, which will be presented at the final conference in the first half of 2022 and subsequently delivered to the legislator. The third meeting on this topic was held in Rijeka, with the next one scheduled for Osijek at the end of November, while the final conference will take place in Zagreb.
The President of the Oil Industry Union, Jasna Pipunić, stated that since the beginning of the pandemic, the oil and gas business worldwide and in Croatia has faced numerous challenges regarding remote work.
– Both employers and workers relied on existing legal regulations, but many issues such as rights, obligations, and the scope of responsibilities during remote work remained narrowly defined. Workers are concerned about the employer’s responsibility for occupational safety, defining costs that employers will cover for remote workers, as well as the right to disconnect. After an eight-hour workday, workers must have the right to a private life. Clear boundaries for working hours, health and safety, and privacy through the right to disconnect, limitations on monitoring, and restrictions on collecting workers’ data must be established – she emphasized.
The Director General of HUP, Damir Zorić, stated that primarily technology, but also more flexible forms of work, allow a greater number of employees to work remotely.
– It is necessary to regulate the relationship between employers and employees, and it must not be one-sided. Employers will use this model and regulate relationships in accordance with legal obligations when and if remote work fits into the company’s business model, or if it is compatible with the ability to perform work in a certain activity, while in some activities remote work is not possible – he said.
Zorić pointed out the problem of socialization for people working remotely, stating that teamwork, socialization, and that isolated work, mainly in front of a screen, can lead to some difficulties are needed in work. He believes that one of the challenges is how to devise new ways and tools for socializing workers with each other and with the company they work for due to the exchange of experiences, difficulties, and joint problem-solving.
Speaking about the draft of the new Labor Law, which plans to regulate the issue of remote work, he said that efforts should be made to improve these institutes, that they cannot be satisfied with what is additional bureaucratization, administration, and recording, which, he says, can be a relatively simple work process.
