Formalizing work from home, which has emerged as a need for a new way of organizing work in a time of pandemic, is one of the main recommendations of the experts who participated in today’s online eighth session of the EU National Convention from the second cycle of the Working Group 2 – Social Policy and Employment (Chapter 19) on the topic “Legal mechanisms for regulating labor relations in a pandemic caused by COVID 19: lessons learned and lessons to be learned.
The Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Jagoda Shahpaska, stressed that the topic is essential for determining the legal mechanisms for regulating this matter.
“The pandemic is not only a health but also an economic and sociological crisis that has hit very powerful economies, because the virus is uncompromising. In the crisis period, the priority was to preserve jobs and help the vulnerable categories, in order to help both companies and workers. Working from home, which has emerged as a new concept and as a new way of working, has become a serious experience and this will be incorporated in the new legislation further. Social reform was put to the test. “I responsibly claim that it enabled us to overcome the crisis,” Shahpaska said.
“Work from home as a way of organizing the work process will continue after the end of the pandemic, which requires systematic regulation of this matter,” said Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje, Jovan Pejkovski. In addition, as he added, it will be necessary to specify other details such as the maximum and minimum number of working hours, the minimum wage, the way to advance in the career, under what conditions the employment contract can be terminated, the use on sick leave and vacation, protection at work from home, protection of motherhood, period of salary payment, work from home for a definite and indefinite period of time, what is the obligation to inform the employer regarding changes in obligations and conditions, payment of overtime work in case of increased workload, what are the responsibilities of the employer, maintenance of equipment, installations, strengthening the Internet connection, digitalization, investment in information technology, data protection etc.
This request was followed by professors Lazar Jovevski, from the Faculty of Law and Zoran Mihajloski from the American College, who stressed that the way of working from home should be regulated by the reform of the Law on Labor Relations that is underway.
Some experts agreed that the crisis also affected the balance of gender equality.
“The crisis has a gender dimension, in addition to the legal mechanism we are discussing today. The health crisis has opened up many challenges. It affected all countries in the world from a gender aspect and intensified the existing inequality, “said Gabriela Madzovska from the MLSP.
This was followed by the university professor Makedonka Radulovic, who spoke about the vulnerability of working women in the labor market and who recommended the introduction of control over the implementation of the new regulations, as well as the need to open kindergartens that will work 24 hours a day, for shift parents, as well as providing family assistants.
Slovak experts Daniel Skobla and Tomas Strazay also took part in the debate, thanking them for organizing the webinar despite the coronavirus pandemic and pointing out that the purpose of such sessions, as well as the National Convention itself, is to share experiences and help experts support each other. “The EU plan for recovery from the pandemic includes not only the 27 members, but also several other countries, including Northern Macedonia. “I want to emphasize that Slovakia fully supports the efforts to start negotiations for Northern Macedonia’s membership in the European Union,” Strazay said.
In that context, the debate was concluded by the coordinator of the National Convention, prof. Dr. Mileva Gjurovska, who said that the three-year experience of the National Convention showed that not only does the new methodology for accession negotiations for EU membership work, but also increased interest among most stakeholders in social life in our country, especially in the field of labor relations that was the topic of today’s debate and which belongs exactly to the cluster of the economic sphere.
“The economy has been a special point of the pandemic and can be measured by the biggest crises in the world. Therefore, the regulation of the way of working from home requires measures in the long run “, concluded Gjurovska.