The regulation of remote work in collective agreements. First experiences after Royal Decree Law 28/2020

Abstract

Until just a year ago, and despite the technical possibilities for widespread use in various sectors, telecommuting (and teleworking as a sub-type) in Spain was poorly established; a situation that has altered the COVID-19 health pandemic, precipitating the enactment of rules that seek to establish basic regulatory principles whose effective definition and material development has been entrusted to collective bargaining. The immediate and future development of a way of providing services which, in anticipation of what should have been a slow and non-urgent implementation, must be able to be undertaken now in conditions of balance of interests, equality of rights and preservation of occupational health and safety, will depend on how the latter assumes the mission entrusted to it by Royal Decree Law 28/2020. The aim of this paper is to analyse how collective agreements can now lead the way in the regulation of teleworking and how the new legislation has changed the conventional experiences, assuming that, due to the short time elapsed since the publication of the royal decree law, data are scarce and will have to be completed in subsequent works.