Remote Work as a Form of Atypical Employment: Problems of Legal Regulation

Vyshnovetska S. V. Remote Work as a Form of Atypical Employment: Problems of Legal Regulation


Research of remote work as a legal category and mechanism of legal regulation of this form of atypical employment has extraordinary value at present complex social and economic conditions of development of Ukraine. The remote work requires the proper legal regulation. Currently, this form of atypical employment is not consolidated on legislative level. The effective Labour Code of Ukraine and draft of the Labour Code of Ukraine do not contain the “remote work” concept. Legal status of employees working remotely is not defined by the draft of the Labour Code of Ukraine.
The article’s purpose is to determine legal nature of the remote work for the proper regulation of this form of atypical employment.
In the article an author analyzes the remote work definitions consolidated in Russian legislation and scientific literature, as well as telework definition in the European Framework Agreement on Telework, separation of home work and telework.
The author researches home work, i.e. when work is performed by the employee at home under the proper labour contract, and he/she uses working materials, tools or means provided by the employer or purchased for the employer’s costs. The author makes a conclusion that the essentially qualifying signs of such form of work organization are production of goods at home by home worker and therefore that the result of home work has material nature.
It is concluded that using at work information and communication technologies is crucial to separation of telework and home work. Therefore, at the author’s point of view, using the norms of labour legislation on regulation of home work concerning the teleworkers is incorrect. The scope of home work application is production area and the area of certain types of services in the community services system, but not the area of computer technologies. Traditional home work is seen as low-qualified work that uses simple equipment. Therefore, there should be applied the differentiated approach to the legal regulation of work of remote workers and home workers.
It is concluded that home work is not remote work as it is not performed out of the stationary workplace. The home worker’s workplace is his/her permanent or temporary residence. Besides, remote work necessarily involves using information technologies. The author considers that remote work should be regulated solely by the labour legislation, so this atypical form of employment urgently requires proper legal regulation by the draft of the Labour Code of Ukraine.
Keywords: atypical employment, remote work, telework, home work, workplace.

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