eWORK 2000 - European Telework Week

More documents

Recommendations

Info

New Ways to Work 2000European TeleworkSeminars, meetings and congresses on the broader subject of NTICs have been held or planned during thisyear, among which:• Toledo (Castilla La Mancha - Regional government and local Chamber of Commerce)• "Leon con Futuro" Castilla LaVieja Region, and Eurofoodshop (with the Fondo Europeo de DesarrolloRegional)• Cepadite Congress organised by CEPES• Seville meeting on Telecentres and telework for rural communities organised by Ingenia (Malaga andSeville telecentres) and the government of Andalucia• Merida, Extremadura government and FEVAL (Merida Commercial Fair and Exhibition Centre) on SMEsand new technologies.At the national level, new initiatives are also making headlines.Minister of Technology Ana Birulés, former CEO of one of the three main telephone operators, hasannounced an INTERNET monthly flat rate for no more than 18 Euro before the end of the year.As far as the number of teleworkers is concerned, statistics on the subject are not collected and the extent ofpractice of the "new ways of working" and "E-work" are spreading so rapidly that any quantitative estimate ofthe number of teleworkers is becoming meaningless: it is in the qualitative aspects that the phenomenon is nowrecognised as having a major impact on jobs and the economy. Teleworking is gradually giving place tonetworking.Contacts:Michel Ickx,Cibertecaemail: mickx@neptuno.ciberteca.esEduardo Barrera, CommercNet Europeemail:eduardo@commercenet.orgeWork factories - providing an alternative to the city centre officeA perspective that has been going on for some time in Spain but now start to take a very firm role are the new‘eWork factories’being developed in regions outside (to get lower costs) but close enough to the largemetropolitan areas (namely Madrid and Barcelona) to facilitate the marketing tasks, including face-to-facemeetings.Most of these centres are oriented to develop web pages, create and maintain websites for SMEs, and do someprogramming work, particularly in C++ and Java, but also evolving into XML and new services forSMS/WAP/GPRS and UMTS. These centres employ mainly local people and market their services to bigclients in the cities.One of the most successful is the GPM Factory of Salamanca which is owned by the GPM (MultimediaProductionGroup). GPM has more than 130 programmers and designers today developing their services for large nationalcorporations headquartered in Madrid. The new facility will accommodate circa 400 employees.Similar initiatives are going on in Extremadura, Andulacia, Castilla-Leon, Catalunya and the Basque country.Legal Status of Telework in Spain- 100 -
New Ways to Work 2000European TeleworkThere is as yet, no specific law on telework in Spain. The only applicable law is the law governing home workdone either under a mercantile contract (self employment) or work performed from home under a part-time orfull-time employment contract.The latter law depends on the labour jurisdiction, not the mercantile law.Telework and flexible working do not adapt well to this situation and the actual administration is open to theestablishment of specific rules and laws concerning telework. However, because of the rapid change of the newmodalities of working, it has adopted an attitude of flexibility toward the market and social requirements ofemployers, employees and their representatives (the Unions). Therefore the administration waits for the actors(employers association and unions) to bring forward their respective suggestions and demands.Teleworking under a full-time employment contract does not present major difficulties as it is seldomperformed solely from home. It is the type of teleworking adopted by large companies generally for salesmen,technical people and specialists who work mostly away from the office. In those cases, just as in other U.E.countries, agreements are made case by case between the employer and the unions in representation of theworkers. Such case-by- case agreements have not been difficult to reach since they are based on common senseand fully justified commitments on both sides.Employers, unions and employees have usually been able to negotiate mutually satisfactory agreementsspecifying the responsibilities and contributions on both sides.As an example, matters such as: who pays for the cost of communications and the equipment, access topromotion and in-company training on the same level as office employees, minimum social contacts, right toreturn to traditional working in the office for employees who cannot adapt to distant working, insurance foraccidents while working away from the company premises etc. are settled with the bonuses and compensationsclaimed by the employees and provided by the employer, whereas matters such as confidentiality ofdocuments, performance and measurement of work done are settled by legal commitments assumed by theemployees.Whenever a large part of the telework is done from home and an ad hoc space is required to perform it, theproblem arises concerning health and safety requirements as well as the concept of accident while working.Obviously it is difficult for the company and for the inspectors of the administration or the unionrepresentatives to verify such conditions on private premises without a specific law governing access to theprivate home of the worker.On the other hand, for telework at home under a mercantile contract for independent workers, and not under anemployment contract, many areas are grey. For instance, under circumstances where the company contractingthe services of the self employed controls the process of the work being done, or provides certain means forcarrying out this work (equipment, on-line access, software applications), the (labour) law may make it illegalto carry-on under a sub contracting agreement, forcing the establishment of a full employment relation.To make matters further difficult, the initial and simplistic concept of telework as work done at home or awayfrom the main office is no longer valid for the overall evolution of work known as e-work, mobile working andmany other new terms.Modern work is very different from traditional occupations measured mostly by the time spent in an office,shop or factory. It is a new process of objective-oriented and varied activities, performed in different placesand times, including work carried out in new offices designed for passing teleworkers with no personalquarters. It does not lend itself to the establishment of clear rules.- 101 -
Page 1 and 2:
eWORK 2000Status Report onNew Ways
Page 3 and 4:
New Ways to Work 2000European Telew
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50: New Ways to Work 2000European Telew
Page 99: New Ways to Work 2000European Telew
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
show all

eWORK 2000 - European Telework Week

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?