The price crisis blocks collective bargaining and makes remote work agreements difficult
Part of the SMEs limit themselves to allowing one day from home to circumvent the regulations and not pay the expenses
The law of telecommuting has been valid for two years in Spain and only the 9% of employees are covered by a agreement that specifically regulates said practice. The end of the covid restrictions has reduced the percentage of workers who usually work from home, although this almost triples the levels prior to the pandemic. Although in the last year the number of employees covered by an agreement of remote work has multiplied, the price crisis plays against it since it is blocking a large part of the agreements via Collective negotiation. These take root much more strongly in large companies, among highly qualified workers with better wages and with a mean age between 35 and 54 yearscompared to more precarious sectors that remain oblivious to the benefits of teleworking.
Did teleworking come to stay after the pandemic? Yes, but its extension is going at a slower pace than expected by some, according to the sources consulted for this report. In October 2020, the Ministry of Labor signs an agreement with employers and unions for a new remote work law, under the maxim that the costs of said practice cannot fall into the pockets of employees and that companies must provide them with the necessary means. As of October 2021, 3% of employees are covered by a valid collective agreement that regulates remote work rights. October 2022, 9% of employees telework regularly, according to data provided to EL PERIÓDICO by the Ministry of Labor.
This percentage rises to 12% if the data from the last active population survey (EPA) of the INE are taken as a reference. According to calculations of Bank of Spain, the levels of teleworking have a long way to go and almost three times more employees could work from home if all the companies that can offer this modality did so. The reluctance of companies to assume new costs is the main argument given by the sources consulted to explain the slow progress of remote work.
And it is that in many companies, especially among SMEs, the “work from home, not telecommuting”. This euphemism refers to a manager consulted by this means to explain the implementation of this organizational modality among the SMEs. And it is that the norm only obliges companies to regulate remote work in writing if it exceeds 30% of the worker’s weekly workday. In other words, if you work five days a week and one of these is done from home, you do not need to sign any paper that includes a bonus for the worker with which to pay for the extra cost of electricity, Wi-Fi or the screen, the computer and ergonomic chair.
“Trying to introduce rigidities in collective bargaining means that companies apply the criterion of prudence and the possibilities of teleworking are not maximized. it is necessary self-criticism to explain where we are, but responsible optimism to project now more and better solutions”, affirms the general secretary of Pimec, Joseph Ginesta.
And another ballast to the extension of teleworking is explained by the resistance of the workers. “We come from a somewhat retrograde business culture, in which presenteeism still weighs heavily. Before covid, this was a very little democratized practice and confinement accelerated its spread. Although it left two very polarized contrasts. Some workers tried the honeys of teleworking and they can no longer conceive of not doing it a few days a week. And others ended up very burned out and don’t want to know anything,” says the director of the EAE Business School Master’s in Human Resources, Maite Moreno. And it is that the practice of remote work leaves paradoxes such as those found in a recent survey by the German listed company Nfon. According to this, 28% of workers complain that working from home means putting in more hours. And, at the same time, 36% of those surveyed say they have more time to spend with the family.
Inequality at a distance
The workers of Audi they can work the days they want from home starting this October 1. The group’s signature volkswagen reached a pioneering agreement with the unions that grants maximum flexibility for teleworking to its 1,500 office employees. On the other hand, Tesla management decided that remote work was strictly prohibited for its employees after the end of the covid restrictions. The most common model adopted by companies is neither one nor the other and falls somewhere in the middle, popularly known as ‘3+2’. Three days in the office, two from home.
The large corporations were the first to formalize their agreements adapted to it after the teleworking law. Telephone, Ikea, BBVA, seats… even the public administration has opted for that ‘3+2’. “There are many companies with offices in the upper area of Barcelona that quickly opted for teleworking because that way they could move to smaller facilities, with lower rents and save a lot of money. Paying compensation to their employees to telework has paid off for them & rdquor ;, explains the union policy secretary of UGT de Catalunya, Nuria Gilgado.
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However, among SMEs, teleworking agreements are being resisted by unions due to the reluctance of employers to accept conditions that entail greater expenses. For example, the social partners are currently negotiating the agreement for offices and offices of Barcelona, which covers some 200,000 workers, and in which they finalize a compensatory payment per day of exercise remotely.
And this resistance, added to the increase in the cost of supplies that all households are currently noticing, is generating unequal access to teleworking. Employees with better salaries can afford it –either because they negotiate with the company, or because they bear the cost themselves-, while those with lower payrolls cannot. “If the increase in prices continues like this, many workers will return to the office so as not to have to pay more than electricity or of heating this winter,” says Gilgado. “Something similar already happened this summer, when, given the high temperatures, there were employees who saw a climate shelter“, agrees the director of the master’s degree in human resources at EAE Business School.