Telework and technologies. The challenges of legal regulation

Abstract

Covid pandemic has drastically changed the way people work and communicate. It has forced many of them to switch to the telework and triggered the use of different new technologies. These changes helped to slow down the spread of disease and at the same time created number of challenges in different other areas. The aim of this thesis is to analyse whether existing EU legal framework is well prepared for the changes and transformation processes happening in the society. The objective of this thesis is to analyse current legal regulation of telework in EU and identify deficiencies and gaps in. Study showed that in several areas (Right to Disconnect, Employee Monitoring and surveillance, Biometrics, IoT, IT equipment use) updated/new regulation is required. In addition – current regulation is very fragmented, in many cases not binding to countries and allows and even leads EU Member states to de-harmonization and implementation of country specific norms. New and binding EU level regulation is required to address the current challenges and for EU to be prepared for future technological developments.