Home Office Legally Unclear, Yet More and More Popular among Czech Employees
Amendment of the Labor Code dealing with home office should have entered in force since July 1. It did not happen. The debate in the Chamber of Deputies was postponed, although rising number of companies offer home-office as a great benefit for employees. Conditions of home office remain rather blurry.
Employees, on one hand, fancy the opportunity to work from home since the companies’ intranet and structures are accessible from almost whatever computer they are on. Employers, on the other hand, comprehend that home office is valued as one of the most important benefits, especially for millennials and young families.
According to worldwide survey by Anytime, Anywhere Work almost 40% of employees work from home on regular basis and 44% work like that occasionally. Daniel Černý from the company HALLA notes for Novinky.cz that “in average our employees do use home office once in a week and Prague nonresidents from commercial department work predominantly from home”. Western countries and Nordic states are fully aware of pros and cons of home office but the Czech Republic is not fully at peace with its peculiarities.
As an employer, there are several headscratchers to tackle e.g. occupational safety and health policies which should be complied even when the employee is working at home.
A company ought to care for the safety of all personnel and instruct staff on safety even in domestic environment. Other issues are obligatory rest breaks. Alica Kubíčková, director of the Chamber of Legal Responsibility, advises: “Unfortunately, as in regard to underdeveloped legislation we suggest employers to anchor all rights and obligations of home office exclusively in a written contract or in contract of employment.”
Isolation of home office workers from their colleagues, reimbursement of communication and technology costs for home office are downs of such arrangement.
France newly presented a ban on work-emails after work hours. In the Czech Republic, the issues related to home office are left for companies and organizations to deal with on their own.
Tilte picture: Pixabay
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