Atidje Aliyeva-Veli: It is necessary to introduce a directive on remote work

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people are working from home, blurring the line between personal and professional life.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people are working from home, blurring the line between personal and professional life. The Employment Committee in the EP voted on a proposal for the right of workers to disconnect from their work electronically during holidays and outside working hours. MEP Atige Aliyeva-Veli said that the Renew Europe group supported the proposal:

“It is our opinion that we should and can take advantage of new technological and digital opportunities to ensure greater freedom and efficiency especially in times of pandemic, but at the same time we must also seek to protect workers.”

It is necessary to take into account the dangers and problems that may arise, because it is observed that personal and working time are increasingly mixed when a person works remotely and cannot tear himself away from his work environment, said Atige Aliyeva-Veli:

“Of course, there were delegations that expressed their reservations, but only with regard to the instrument chosen, i.e. whether it should be a directive or guidelines. The European Commission has not yet expressed a position on how these relations should be regulated.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more people are switching to remote work. This form is relatively new and with it comes ambiguities, both for workers and employers:

“There are many things that are not regulated. For example, who and how overtime is certified and paid. We know that since we are in the covid crisis, overtime in remote work is generally not paid. At the same time, compared to 2019, we are seeing a huge increase in people working from home. If in 2019 at the EU level they were 5%, and for Bulgaria only 0.5%, at the moment we see that at the European level they reach 37%, and in Bulgaria it is already almost 30%. It is important to have a balance between personal life and work. Of course, already with artificial intelligence and digital technologies, we go even further when the worker is monitored during work, but we must preserve privacy, personal data, etc.”

Atige Aliyeva-Veli believes that it is important to have such a directive, because now the existing legislation cannot be revised in the direction of remote work and it is important to protect the rights of workers.

Most likely, there will have to be reforms in the legislation in this direction and this proposal is yet to be discussed, the MEP also said.