The new regulation of telework and remote work in Portugal: considerations and prospects

COVID-19 led to an extraordinary increase in both telework and remote work, exposing some of the fragilities and loopholes of the Portuguese applicable regulation and leading the Portuguese Parliament to approve a new law on teleworking in the form of an amendment to the Labour Code aimed at extending the protection of teleworkers. This paper intends to analyse this new regulation implemented by Law No. 83/2021 of 6 December regarding its concept and scope of application; the telework agreement and the principle of volunteering; teleworkers’ rights and employers’ duties related to equipment, tools and teleworking-related expenses; employers’ duty to abstain from any contact during rest periods; privacy and data protection; health, safety and work-related accidents; and the right to telework, namely for work-life balance reasons. The final objective is to provide a critical overview of the legal regulation, assessing its strengths and weaknesses.