Telework, work at home and remote work: everything you need to know about these ways of getting employed and employed

Recently, the National Department of Statistics (Dane) revealed that unemployment in Colombia fell during the month of February. The entity noted that the percentage of unemployed was 12.9%, which meant a reduction of 2.6%. Among these data collected, one of the modalities that has contributed to the economic recovery of the country is employment outside the office. However, there are three concepts that are often confused to refer to this, since the legal concepts between teleworking, working at home and remote work differ from each other.

The concept of teleworking has existed in Colombia since 2008 and is defined by law 1221 in 2008 as “” a form of labor organization, which consists in the performance of paid activities or the provision of services to third parties using information and communication technologies — ICT as a support for the contact between the worker and the company, without requiring the physical presence of the worker at a specific place of work”.

But what at first glance seems like a logical definition of a service that is provided at a distance, contemplates three specificities, or in other words, three types of workers. “On the one hand, it takes into consideration the self-employed employee, who is the one who uses his own home, or a place that can also be given to him by the employer, and who occasionally goes to the company to carry out his work. The mobile phone, which is the worker who uses mobile technology devices but does not have a fixed place of work. The latter may also occasionally attend the company. Finally, there is the additional employee, who, depending on the need for the service, works between the house and the company”, explains Catalina Grosso, lawyer specializing in labor law and social security in dialogue for Infobae.

But teleworking, unlike working at home and remote work, also has specific conditions. The expert adds that when companies use this figure to hire an employee, they must record in writing each of the minimum conditions for the performance of this work, guaranteeing equality with workers who do so in person. “If you are hired as teleworking, the company cannot change its mind, that is, it cannot send the worker to do face-to-face work,” he adds.

As for working hours, it not only provides for the right to disconnect, to respect family time, not to apply for work in hours that are not within the working day and if overworked, the hours must be remunerated as indicated by the substantive labour code.

As far as social security is concerned, the figure operates the same as that of any other worker and the company must report to the ARL and the Ministry of Labour which workers are exercising teleworking.

Work at home is a new concept that began to emerge as a result of the pandemic and is currently regulated by law 2088 of 2021. The first thing to understand with regard to this mode of work is that it is transitory. Under this concept, the worker carries out his operations from a place other than usual in circumstances that are according to the law “exceptional, special or occasional”. “Work at home can take place for as long as the employer tells the worker, it can be for three months, it can be extended or it can persist as long as there are reasons that gave rise to the emergency,” says Grosso.

In this case, the subscription of a document is not required to work at home, the employer simply informs the employee how long he will be in that modality and has the power to require him to return to his services in person without having to send the report to the Ministry of Labour.

In this case, when the employee receives less than two minimum wages for their services, economic assistance is presented — which is the same as that of the transport subsidy — and which is transferred as a connectivity aid.

Finally, when reference is made to remote work, Law 2121 of 2021 defines it as “a form of execution of the employment contract in which the entire employment relationship, from its inception to its termination, must be carried out remotely through the use of information and telecommunications technologies or other means or mechanism, where the employer and worker, do not interact physically throughout the contractual relationship.” This implies that companies must record in writing the conditions between the parties and also makes it possible to make the migration to this modality of people who are working in person viable. However, there are some exceptions in which face-to-face participation can be requested, “for example, when meetings related to occupational safety and health have to be attended, when work tools and equipment need to be verified in order to carry out the work, to be able to install programs and attend to processes disciplinary”, adds Grosso.

In addition, with regard to working hours, there may also be greater flexibility, since it is possible to agree on the distribution of time between the parties, according to the tasks pending at home. That is, if a worker proves that he or she has in his care children under 14 years of age, people with disabilities and older adults in the first degree of consanguinity, the day can attend that assistance, including also the right to disconnect and rest that is equally applicable to working at home.

But although in some terms there is flexibility, aspects such as social security and occupational health are not negotiable in any way. Thus, the person responsible is obliged to inform all employees what all ergonomic and risk prevention care should consist of and when the ARL is notified, they must ensure that the worker's space complies with the standards that will allow them to prevent risks. In addition, the worker must know that he also has a series of responsibilities with self-care that he must follow to the letter, since when signing a contract there is not only talk of a transactional exchange, but also rights and duties are acquired between the parties.

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