Legal Challenges of Teleworking in Latvia

Abstract

Due to technological developments and entry of new generations into the labor market, teleworking is rapidly becoming more widely used as a form of employment. The Covid-19 crisis has increased its relevance over the past year. In the Latvian regulatory framework, this has been defined recently, including the definition of telework in the Labour Protection Law. Given that companies have had to adapt to the organisation of telework relatively quickly, in practice there are legal obstacles to effective implementation of sustainable telework. The aim of the article is to reveal the most significant legal obstacles to implementation of efficient and sustainable telework in Latvia, considering experience of other countries. Both national and international legislation have been used in the study to achieve the set goal. Descriptive, analysis, induction and deduction methods have been used in the development of the article. The results showed that there are uncertainties about application of the law in Latvia in the context of telework to the employee’s right to disconnect from digital devices. The authors also found that planned changes to the Labour Law regarding telework do not create legal certainty in employment relations in emergency situations, such as the Covid-19 crisis. The authors also suggest including the right to disconnect in the Latvian regulation, to secure employees’ rights to privacy and secure and healthy work environment.