By Jeffrey Phaup

 

In a scramble to survive the COVID-19 pandemic companies around the world embraced remote working, but this new arrangement blurred lines between working and personal hours.[1] However, newly remote employees suffered ‘availability creep’, a condition where workers feel obligated to be available at all times to respond to work requests from their employers.[2]

To promote a healthy work-life balance for workers and to prevent companies from overworking employees Portugal has passed a set of laws under which employers could face penalties for contacting workers outside of office hours.[3]

Under these laws, which apply to any company with 10 or more employees, an employer will face fines for contacting workers beyond their normal working hours.[4] Companies will also have to bear certain expenses incurred due to remote working, such as an employee’s increased internet and electricity bills. Employers cannot monitor their employees while they work remotely but that superiors and employees should meet in person every two months to avoid isolation.[5] Additionally, in jobs where remote work is possible, parents may choose to work remotely until their child is eight years old without making prior arrangements.[6]

Ana Mendes Godinho, Portugal’s minister of labor, said that this is a “crucial moment” to establish new rules and that the pandemic “accelerated the need to regulate what needs to be regulated.”[7] “The pandemic has accelerated the need to regulate what needs to be regulated,” she said. “Telework can be a ‘game changer’ if we profit from the advantages and reduce the disadvantages”.[8] Additionally, Minister Godinho asserted that building a healthy remote working culture could also bring other benefits to Portugal in the form of foreign remote workers who are seeking a change of scenery, “We consider Portugal one of the best places in the world for these digital nomads and remote workers to choose to live in, we want to attract them to Portugal.”[9]

 

[1] See generally Suzanne Elliott, Could it soon become illegal in the UK for your boss to contact you outside work hours?, ITV News (Nov. 12, 2021), https://www.itv.com/news/2021-11-12/could-your-boss-be-banned-from-contacting-you-outside-work-hours [https://perma.cc/82PY-ZKT2].

[2] Id.

[3] See generally Maite Fernández Simon, Portugal adopts strict pandemic-era labor protections for remote work, Washington Post (Nov. 11, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/11/portugal-working-from-home-law/ [https://perma.cc/3VB8-9N4V].

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] See generally Tom Bateman, Portugal makes it illegal for your boss to text you after work in ‘game changer’ remote work law, euronews (Nov. 11, 2021), https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/11/08/portugal-makes-it-illegal-for-your-boss-to-text-you-after-work [https://perma.cc/N9MH-R8HD].

[8] Id.

[9] Id.