The BOE nº164 of 10 July 2021 publishes Act 10/2021 on Teleworking, as a result of Royal Decree-Law 28/2020, of 22 September, which, after being validated by the Congress of Deputies, has been passed as a draft law.
Remote work, understood as work carried out outside the company’s usual establishments and centres, of which teleworking is a subspecies involving the provision of services with new technologies, linked to very specific sectors and geographical areas, has been regulated both internally and at EU and international level, and even so, it has been overtaken by the reality of a new framework of relations and the severe impact of new technologies.
The new regulation develops, as axes, three minimum aspects, which are already included in the European Framework Agreement on Telework, in the Community acquis -among others, directives on minimum health and safety conditions, on working time and predictability and transparency in working conditions- or in the statutory regulations, which is the personal and material framework in which it is developed.
Remote working does not result from the management and organisational powers of the company, nor from the figure of the substantial modification of working conditions -article 41 of the Workers’ Statute- but is a voluntary option for both parties, and with regard to their working conditions, persons who work remotely shall benefit from the same rights as those guaranteed by the legislation and collective agreements applicable to comparable persons who work or, if they exist, would work on the company’s premises, without this form of organisation entailing any change in the legal status of the worker, nor constituting in itself a justifiable cause for modifying working conditions or for terminating the employment relationship.
Likewise, it is considered necessary to establish to the precise extent the powers of control and organisation that correspond to the company, in order to guarantee the appropriate use and conservation of the equipment delivered, the limitations of personal use of the equipment and connections, the fulfilment by the worker of his or her work obligations and duties and the necessary instructions to protect the company against possible security breaches.