The remark from the “White Book” about specifying the difference between working from home and at a distance is realistic, experts agree, but the contracts on professional development of students should be replaced.
The current Labor Law defines employment for work outside the employer’s premises through teleworking and working from home, but in the latest edition of the “White Book” the Council of Foreign Investors states that the difference between working from home and teleworking would be desirable additionally.
Among the problems that need to be resolved as soon as possible, the council singles out those related to the status of high school students and interns, then questions about the criteria for annual leave, structure and calculation of salaries, as well as salary compensation during absence from work during sick leave, ways of digitalization in labor regulations…
He points out that there were no improvements in the field of labor force in the previous year, although they were expected, both through amendments to the Labor Law and in court decisions. All this was followed by a pandemic that fundamentally changed the labor market. Therefore, it is proposed to introduce the possibility of regulating the employment relationship during the establishment or during the employment relationship so that the employee works outside the employer’s premises (and not only from home), as well as the possibility of changing the working regime during employment on a special basis to change the agreed conditions.
Mario Reljanovic, a research associate at the Institute for Comparative Law, agrees that the remark from the “White Book” about the need to specify the difference between work from home and teleworking is quite realistic. He reminds that, although the work outside the employer’s premises was legally improved in 2014, that is still not enough.
– We do not have specific definitions of working from home or remotely, so new terms should be introduced. In European legislation, for example, we encounter the term teleworking, which in translation means working remotely using information technology. But, that does not mean only work from home, but from any other location, which in our country remains in the domain of the unknown – Reljanovic points out.
The Council of Foreign Investors emphasizes the importance of contracts on professional development of pupils and students, noting that in the private sector, employers use contracts on temporary and occasional jobs more for that.
Reljanovic believes that this remark from the “White Book” is not entirely appropriate, because the contracts on professional training do not give young people any rights from employment or any compensation for work, which makes them free labor.
– Young people cannot conclude such contracts if their practice is not a condition for taking the professional exam, so it happens that they sign contracts for temporary jobs with the employer. However, I am against the expansion of the contract on professional training, because a better solution is to conclude an internship contract which guarantees at least basic labor rights – Reljanovic explains.
The Council also believes that it would be better for the law to leave it to the employer to determine the criteria for increasing annual leave by a general act, and Reljanovic adds that this remark was “missed”, because the criteria are stated in the law of an advisory nature. He points out as good the proposal of the council to envisage work performance as a possibility, and not to be an obligatory part of the salary, reminding that the category of salary is extremely complicated in the law, which should also be worked on, Politika reports.
