Companies in Portugal can now face fines for contacting workers outside of their normal working hours.
Remote workers in Portugal could see a healthier work-life balance under new labour laws approved by the country’s parliament.
The new rules approved on Friday are a response to the explosion of home working because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Portugal’s ruling Socialist Party said.
Employers are also forbidden from monitoring their employees while they work at home.
Companies will also have to help pay for expenses incurred by remote working, such as higher electricity and internet bills.
But the amendments to Portugal’s labour laws have limits: they will not apply to companies with fewer than ten employees.
However, a proposal to include the so-called “right to disconnect” – the legal right to switch off work-related messages and devices outside office hours – was rejected by Portuguese MPs.
The new rules are also good news for parents of young children. They now have the right to work from home without having to arrange it in advance with their employers, up until their child turns eight years old.
Measures to tackle loneliness are also included in the remote working rules, with companies expected to organize face-to-face meetings at least every two months.
But while remote working during the pandemic brought new flexibility to many, issues such as unequal access to IT equipment showed the need for the government to step in, Portugal’s Minister of Labour and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, told the Web Summit conference in Lisbon last week.
Invest in tech to speed-up the green transition, says Portugal’s Economy Minister “The pandemic has accelerated the need to regulate what needs to be regulated,” she said.
Portugal was the first European country to alter its remote working rules as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic in January this year.
