As it has been widely publicized, health authorities, not only in Brazil, but worldwide, have been alerting to the need of strong social isolation, as a way to slow down the contamination of the population by the coronavirus.
As a result, the Brazilian Government issued, on March 22, Provisional Measure 927/2020 (PM 927/2020), which brings a list of labor measures that can be adopted to surpass the state of public calamity decreed.
Among such measures is the home office system.
It is important to note that teleworking was formally recognized, by the Labor Reform, as a valid mean of providing services, by Chapter II-A, of the Labor Code (Articles 75-A to 75-E).
Such Articles bring rules that must be observed for the provision of services under teleworking and define it as “a provision of services preferably out of the employer’s premises, by the use of information and communication technologies that, by their nature, do not constitute external work” (Article 75-B).
As a rule, this work regime is not occasional and, for this reason, it was included as one of the hypotheses of exemption from working hours control (article 62, III, of the Labor Code).
However, remote work – or home office – in times of coronavirus has the peculiarity of being eventual. That is, the employee who does not work under such scheme of service provision starts to work outside the company’s premises, just for the need of social isolation.
In this sense, PM 927/2020 brought some flexibility by altering, during the state of public calamity, the form of service provision by the employee:
Anyhow, it is still a companies’ obligation to guide their employees to strictly observe the rules of safety and hygiene at work, by constantly releasing informative/communicates in this regard.
Finally, it is also important to note that the fulfillment of some of the provisions contained in the Labor Code on remote work, in the specific situation of public calamity, are exempt, as is the case, for example, related to the employer’s obligation to inspect the remote workstation, due to the emergency nature of the measures adopted by PM 927/2020.
Our Labor Team remains at your disposal to clarify any doubts.