A recent ruling by the Portuguese government has been received as a big win by a lot of the population, particularly those who work from home or otherwise work high-pressure jobs.
The government in Portugal made it so that a person’s boss may not be able to contact them outside of their staff’s working hours.
The move is supposed to help people foster a healthier work-life balance.
Portugal, along with the rest of the world, has seen a massive increase in the amount of people who are now working from home.
However, with this new approach to work, there have been many bosses who feel that they can demand more work of their staff outside of the standard office hours.
New changes to labor laws means that employers could be fined if they contact staff out of hours.
The new legislation, approved by Portugal’s Socialist Government, have made it so that people who are working from home cannot be required to do extra work before or after their working day has commenced or ended.
However, the new legislation is only applicable to companies who have over ten employees.
The new legislation not only stops managers from contacting their staff out of hours.
Employers are also not forbidden from monitoring their staff while they are working from home. This means that companies will not be able to require that employees move their mouse every set amount of time, or anything along those lines.
The Portuguese Government hopes to make working from home a sustainable and beneficial reality.
Ana Mendes Godinho, the Minister of Labour and Social Security in Portugal, said in a statement: “The pandemic has accelerated the need to regulate what needs to be regulated,” according to Euro News .
RELATED STORIES
“Telework can be a ‘game changer’ if we profit from the advantages and reduce the disadvantages,” she continued.
People who work from home will also be able to expense things such as electricity and their internet connection.
“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,” Godinho was also quoted as saying.
The hope is that these new regulations will attract workers while hopefully building a better and more prosperous working community in Portugal.
h/t: Euro News
