The right to disconnect, which would imply that a Costa Rican worker can refuse to respond to WhatsApp messages or emails outside of working hours, and clear rules regarding the cost of energy and tools to work, are some of the changes required by the Remote working law.
A year after the approval of the law and in the midst of the pandemic, Eric Briones, doctor of law and university professor, and Steven Núñez, former minister of labor, made an analysis of the work environment and of this new mode of production, which, it became extensive in the public and private sectors as a result of Covid-19.
In their book entitled “Teleworking in Costa Rica”, the authors warn of the need to reform the law, or else, to approve a new legal framework. And it is that not only workers are unprotected in certain areas, but also employers, who today do not have a clear way to verify the overtime that their collaborators work.
“Due to the pandemic, remote working grows exponentially. Before it was the State and some companies, but now, it has become massive. This leads us to the need to make some reforms to the legislation,”said Marcos Amador, coordinator of the Labor Law Commission of the Bar Association.
As part of the presentation of the text, it was analyzed publicly by: Antonio ÁlvarezDesanti, a former deputy who promoted the first teleworking law, Ana Virginia Calzada, former magistrate of Chamber IV, Martha Muñoz, lawyer and Mr. Amador as part of the College of Lawyers and Lawyers.
“Based on the experience we have had with the pandemic, we have come to the conclusion that legal reform must take place. For example, today there is no right to work disconnection, nor is the right to rest regulated,”Briones concluded.
