The event featured a presentation of CESI’s new discussion paper on the the regulation of remote working in a post-Covid New Normal by Sara Rinaudo, Deputy Secretary General of the Italian Confsal-Fismic union and Chair of CESI’s Working Group on the Future Work which had developed the text.

It sought to answer questions such as: How is remote working regulated (or not)? Does it tend to be imposed unilaterally by employers or is it implemented together with staff and their representatives, to the benefit of flexibility for employers and improved work-life balance for employees? Can or should everyone have a right to remote working? Concretely, who does and should bear equipment-related and other costs incurred by remote working? How to ensure regulated working time and prevent permanent availabilities of workers? Who is in charge of health & safety and insurance liabilities? How to assure data protection and prevent potential invasive digital surveillance of staff? What is expected from unions, social partners and policy makers?

It continued with a presentation on the regulation on remote working in Europe by Oscar Vargas from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) and with case studies on remote working practices in selected Member States, delivered by Carmen Jaffke from the Luxembourgish CGFP union, Mantas Stanžys from the Lithuanian RJPS union and Javier Jordán de Urries from the Spanish CSIF union – all CESI affiliates.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “Remote working has come to stay, also beyond the pandemic. We need to ensure that it is regulated in a symbiosis by trade unions, social partners and policy makers, and this at the company and administration level as well as the national and sectoral and EU levels. In this context, our discussion paper serves as a set of overarching guidelines and principles from the perspective of the EU level that all actors involved in the regulation of remote working are welcome to use as a reference and inspiration.”

CESI’s full discussion paper on the the regulation of remote working in a post-Covid New Normal is available here.