Portugal Bans Employers from Contacting Employees Outside Working Hours

Thanks to a new remote work law, employers in Portugal will now face financial penalties if they attempt to contact their employees outside of contracted working hours, whether through phone calls, text messages, or emails. The new law stipulates that ‘the employer must respect the privacy of workers’, including periods of rest and time dedicated to family. Employers are also prohibited from checking on employees while they work from home.

This law, aimed at protecting the right to rest and ‘disconnection’, was designed by the ruling Socialist Party of Portugal to improve the work-life balance for people working from home, a number that has increased due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as reported by the BBC, amendments to this law do have limitations and apply only to companies with more than ten employees, while companies with fewer than ten employees will not be subject to it.

Some Elements Rejected

New rules have also been established for remote work for parents of young children. They are allowed to work from home indefinitely, without prior approval from the employer, until their child turns eight years old. Additionally, employers will have to contribute to paying employees’ bills for electricity, heating, and internet (but not water!), since employees are working from home. To prevent these employees from feeling isolated, the law includes measures such as regular in-person meetings that employers must hold every few months.

However, despite the positive connotations that this law carries, the Portuguese parliament did not approve all of its elements, including the aforementioned ‘right to disconnect’ that allows employees to turn off all devices (mobile phones, laptops…) outside working hours.

Portuguese Minister of Labor and Social Security Ana Mendes Godinho highlighted the advantages of remote work at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon last week but stated that its growth needs to be regulated. Although remote work during the pandemic has brought greater flexibility to many, as emphasized by Godinho, issues such as unequal access to technological equipment for work have pointed to the need for government intervention.

Godinho also added that she hopes this new law will attract even more digital nomads to Portugal. Portugal, like Croatia, has introduced visas for digital nomads, and the Portuguese island of Madeira even has a village for digital nomads, just as Zadar’s Borik recently has a valley for digital nomads.

Not the Only Ones

Portugal was also the first European country to change its remote work rules in January of this year, according to Euronews. These temporary rules made remote work a mandatory option, with a few exceptions, and obligated employers to ensure conditions for working from home.

However, Portugal is not the only country modernizing its labor laws, notes The Guardian. Citizens of France, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Italy, the Philippines, Argentina, India, and others currently enjoy ‘the right to disconnect’. In other words, they are allowed to ‘disconnect’ and not communicate with their employer outside working hours without facing penalties later.

The German Ministry of Employment introduced a ban in 2013 on employers contacting workers outside of contracted hours, and several large German companies such as Volkswagen and Daimler have implemented policies limiting the number of emails employees may receive outside working hours.

The provincial government of Ontario is also introducing a law that would require employers to encourage employees to enable notifications that they are ‘out of the office’ when they are not working.

No Solutions Yet in Croatia

In Croatia, such a law does not exist, at least not for now, but among many companies, there is an unwritten rule regarding the respect of employees’ private time, where the prohibition of contacting after work is somewhat implied. However, this is not legally regulated and cannot be ‘penalized’ in any way.

Speaking about the draft of the new labor law, there have been discussions about proposals to cover the costs of electricity, heating, and internet for employees, but it is still unclear how these costs should be calculated. It is also not yet clear how the costs of technological equipment for work (laptops, mobile phones, etc.) will be covered.

As Lider reported back in January 2021, answers to all important questions regarding the new labor law related to remote work, which concern both employers and employees, are still 'either non-existent or completely misaligned with actual needs and work processes'.

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