Change in Legislation Needed to Face New Work Reality
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Change in Legislation Needed to Face New Work Reality

Photo by:   Jorge Orozco, Unsplash
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By MBN Staff | MBN staff - Thu, 11/12/2020 - 10:00

After companies realized the effectiveness of home office, this scheme appears to be here to stay. However, this has raised concerns among certain organizations as this new normality is likely to increase job disruptions, which makes regulation a priority, reports Eurofound. 

Mexican law specifies that working remotely with the use of information and communication technologies qualifies as remote work. Workers who fit in this category have to be registered in a Remote Employer Registry with the Labor Inspectorate. “Having multiple simultaneous employers does not exclude the worker from special legal protection established for remote work. Working conditions specifying the place of work, the quality and quantity of work to be performed and the remuneration for performing such work have to be stated in the labor contract,” José Pablo Hernández, a lawyer at UNAM’s Legal Research Institute, wrote for Remoter. 

Remote workers in Mexico, Hernández writes, are entitled to paid vacations and compensation when fired without justification. “To establish a remote worker’s minimum wage, the same type of work not done remotely should be taken into account. Wages cannot be lower,” he points out. In addition, workers must enjoy aguinaldo, social security, one day of paid rest per week, paid vacations, maternity leave, subsidies and collective labor rights. 

A survey carried out by S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Digital Pulse reported that 69 percent of companies have found that 75 percent of their workforce can work remotely without hurdles. Therefore, 64 percent of companies plan to increase remote work policies following the pandemic. 

In June 2019, the Federal Labour Law (LFT) was amended to incorporate a chapter regulating and promoting remote working. However, Hernández warns, this law is no longer adept to the needs and reality we live today. Recently, ILO and the Eurofound carried out an evaluation of the working conditions of remote workers in industrialized countries to propose new policies. "Countries have to ensure there are minimum health and safety prevention mechanisms and principles outside of the traditional workplace," Hernández explains.

“In Mexico, there is a lot of space for overall improvement in the current legislation on remote work. For effective protection of workers’ rights and not restricting this type of work, following policy guidelines, like those provided by ILO, Eurofound, and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, is essential,” Hernández concludes.

More news below:

  • When an organization stops innovating, it is only a matter of time before it fails. “One of the big questions of today's leaders is how to drive innovation in their organizations. Many fear a decline in innovation processes due to the isolation that the pandemic has created,” writes this week Álvaro Villar, General Manager of WeWork Mexico and Central America. The office, he points out, is not only the physical environment where we meet to work. It has become more of an open field that enables us to exchange ideas, create meaningful relationships, make friends, concentrate and disconnect when needed. Read the full article here. 

  • The way people work nowadays is very different from a year ago and a question that has been on people’s minds is what will be the "new normal," not only for offices after the pandemic but also for people. How can they be more competitive in this new market? Amid this new reality, there is a chance to redefine the way we have been and will be working from now on.

  • Students and teachers have now reached nine months under confinement and challenges in education are still present. While some have stated that online classes have helped during the pandemic, others say the opposite. The situation has also been a challenge for parents, according to Jorge Álvarez Martínez, Head of the Crisis Intervention Program at UNAM, who says family members have had to quit their jobs to help their kids with schoolwork.

  • Qualcomm will be collaborating with DISH to develop the first Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) compliant 5G development in the US, allowing providers in emerging networks to accelerate the deployment and commercialization of Virtual RAN (vRAN). While this new technology is growing, how will Mexico face this technological advance?

Photo by:   Jorge Orozco, Unsplash

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