The new Remote Working legislation in Spain – all you need to know about working from home: its scope, costs and requirements
Author
01 October 2020
The Official Gazette of the Spanish State (BOE) of 23 September published Royal Decree Law 28/2020, of 22 September, on remote working regime (RW), which will need to be ratified by the Congress of Deputies over the next 30 days.
The RW Regulation will enter into force on 13 October. This is a complex piece of legislation that is redundant in some parts, with continuous calls to collective bargaining. It is based on three principles:
- RW is voluntary for employees and companies, unless the right to work remotely is recognised by law or under a collective bargaining agreement.
- companies must assume the cost of furnishing the services and must provide their employees everything they need and compensate them for their expenses; and
- employees have at least the same labour rights as if they were working on site.
There are some unclear issues that will likely result in conflicting interpretations. Hopefully some of them may be cleared up if the Royal Decree Law is passed into a law.
This publication addresses the main points.