CC BY
48Review of law sciences
Muftulla Khozhabekov,
Teacher of the Department of Labor law at TSUL [email protected]
THE REMOTE METHOD OF ORGANIZING THE WORK OF WORKERS IN
UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: According to the authors' opinion, the article discusses, the most important nuances of labor interaction in a remote mode and practical recommendations on this topic. It is worth to notice that the article focuses on remote work; however, homeworkers and freelancers are also mentioned.
Key words: "remote work" "telework", "work at home", "freelance".
Муфтулла Хожабеков,
преподаватель кафедры «Трудовое право» Ташкентского государственного юридического университета [email protected]
ДИСТАНЦИОННЫЙ МЕТОД ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ ТРУДА РАБОТНИКОВ В
УЗБЕКИСТАНЕ
Аннотация: в статье рассматриваются наиболее важные, по мнению авторов, нюансы трудового взаимодействия в удаленном режиме и практические рекомендации по этой теме. Стоит отметить, что в работе особый акцент уделяется на дистанционную работу, но при этом упоминаются надомники и фрилансеры.
Ключевые слова: «удаленная работа», «дистанционная работа», «надомная работа», «фриланс».
Муфтулла Хожабеков,
Тошкент давлат юридик университети "Мех,нат х,ук;ук;и" кафедраси укитувчиси [email protected]
УЗБЕКИСТОНДА ХОДИМЛАР МЕХДАТИНИ МАСОФАВИЙ ТАРЗДА
ТАШКИЛЛАШТИРИШ УСУЛИ
Аннотация: мацолада муаллифларнинг фикрига кура масофавийрежимда энг мущм ме^натга оид узаро нозик фарцлари ва ушбу мавзу буйича амалий тавсиялар му^окама
цилинган. Шуни таъкидлаш жоизки, алощда эътибор масофавий тартибда ишлашга царатилган, лекин касаначилар ва штатда ишлайдиган ишчилар уам эслатиб утилган.
Калит сузлар: масофавий меунат, касаначи, фриланс.
In the face of the growing threat of the spread of coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV, COVID-2019) throughout the world, countries in which there is a potential danger of its importation, additional preventative measures are being taken promptly. These countries include Uzbekistan. Thus, state authorities transferred to high alert are increasingly urging employers to take supportive measures, including transferring workers to a remote work mode if they have technical and organizational capabilities.
Nevertheless, it turned out that not all employers are yet ready for the operational implementation of such a measure, since they see difficulties in designing an appropriate transition to a remote mode of operation. Complicating the situation is the fact that the current norms of the Labor Code do not allow unambiguous conclusions regarding the legal procedure for such a transfer.
Remote work is a type of employment in which the employer and employee are at a distance from each other, but at the same time, they exchange tasks and work results using information and communication links. In addition, payment for labor can also be made via the Internet.
There are such types of remote work as:
- home work;
- freelance;
- distance work.
Unfortunately, none of these forms of employment is stipulated in the legal acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Work at home is a form of employment in which an employee performs a certain work function at home.
It is the employer's responsibility to provide the employee with the raw materials necessary to perform the work, but the employee also has the right to purchase them independently. Despite the fact that the employee's workplace is his home, an employment contract is concluded between him and the employer.
As for freelancing - this is a work based on a civil contract. The employer gives the employee certain tasks that the employee must complete on time and for a one-time fee.
It is necessary to focus on the features of freelancing, which are not typical to home-based and distance work. Freelancing, being a form of employment based on a civil contract rather than a labor contract, also has the disadvantage of a lack of social support. If an employee is ill, he(she) will not be granted sick leave. In addition, this type of remote work also does not include paid vacation.
The current Labor code does not regulate remote employment. However, one of the types of such employment - "distance work" has found its legislative consolidation in the project of Labor code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, namely in article 486:
Distance work is the performance by an employee of an employment function defined by an employment contract outside the employer's location, outside of a stationary workplace, territory or object that is directly or indirectly under the control of the employer, using information and telecommunications networks, including the Internet, to perform this work function and to interact between the employer and the employee on issues related to its performance.
An employment contract with a distance employee who lives in the same area where the employer is located may provide that the employee works at the employer's workplace for part of his/her working time, which is necessary for direct interaction with the employer and other employees, and the rest of their working time is remotely. An employee is considered distance if at least fifty percent of their working time is spent working remotely.
In this article, we will consider in detail such a type of remote work as "distance work".
An employment contract regarding home and distance work may specify the following terms of the contract:
Workplace (place of residence of the employee);
Labor function (procedure and terms of providing the employee with the necessary raw materials for performing labor duties);
Date of starting the work (when the employee start to work);
The amount of remuneration (it can be either piecework or time-based, so you should specify in what form the employee will receive payment);
Working hours (the employee has the right to manage their own time, but the employer may impose certain restrictions);
Rest time;
Compensation (if an employee purchases raw materials and materials necessary for the performance of their work at their own expense, the employer must compensate them for these expenses);
Communication (on the basis of which means communication is carried out between the employer who sends tasks to the employee, as well as the employee who must send the final result of the work);
Responsibilities of the parties (job descriptions and other regulations of the organization may be attached);
Addresses and details of the parties.
Other terms of the contract may also be provided for, including the grounds for termination of the employment contract.
Nowadays, one of the expected solutions is the adoption of the revised Labour code of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the project of Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "About employment of population" (revised) developed in accordance with the State program on realization of Action Strategy for five priority areas of development of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021 in the "Year of active investments and social development" approved by the decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan from 17 January 2019 №-5635. The project of the new version of the Labor code of the Republic of Uzbekistan was uploaded to https://regulation.gov.uz and it was discussed for a month. It should be noted that this project covers an entire Chapter on distance work.
Article 487 of the Labour code's project lists the following as conditions of an employment contract for distance work:
- the procedure for providing the remote employee with equipment and (or) office equipment, if the remote employee needs the appropriate equipment and (or) office equipment to perform the work function;
- obligations of the employer to carry out repairs of equipment and (or) office equipment transferred to a remote employee for the performance of an employment function stipulated by the employment contract;
- providing the employee with the necessary remedies of communication for regular interaction with the employer, including access to the Internet»;
- conditions for compensation by an employee for damage caused by his fault to the employer related to damage to equipment and (or) office equipment transferred by the employer to a remote employee;
- the procedure for conducting an inventory of equipment, office equipment, software and hardware, communications, information security and other means transferred to the use of a remote employee;
- the procedure and conditions for reimbursement of expenses to a remote employee in the case of using their equipment and (or) office equipment to perform work duties;
- the procedure and conditions for reimbursement of expenses to a remote employee in connection with the use of means of communication for the performance of work duties;
- the procedure for interaction between a remote employee and an employer by exchanging electronic documents;
- the duty of the remote employee to notify the employer if it is impossible to perform the work due to the production task within the established time frame, indicating the reason that prevents its timely implementation;
- obligations of the employer and remote employee to comply with the necessary rules of labor protection and conditions.
An employment contract with a distance employee may also contain other conditions, including additional grounds for termination of the employment contract.
The HeadHunter research center conducted a survey among 526 applicants. Statistics show that 75% of respondents expressed a desire to work remotely.
37 % of respondents have practiced or work remotely, 63 % have no experience in remote employment. At the same time, 57 % of the total number of Uzbek respondents sought remote work purposefully [1].
Despite the rather high demand of our compatriots for remote work, unfortunately, this form of employment is not so developed in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The main reason for this is that there are some types of work that can't be carried out remotely or at home. These include doctors whose work is directly related to patients; construction workers who work at specialized objects; law enforcement officers, and so on. However, it should be pointed out that during the COVID -19 pandemic, representatives of many professions perform their work remotely, despite the fact that this was not previously practiced. For example, these are teachers of schools and universities who communicate with students through social networks and specially organized educational platforms for sending and completing tasks; online bots have been launched to get advice from a notary, or in electronic form through the site e-notarius.uz; it is now possible to issue plastic cards online, which will then be delivered to the place you specify, and online lending for car purchases has been launched; public service centers have begun to provide their services electronically through the portal my.gov.uz.
The Internet is one of the fundamental factors for performing work functions remotely. Therefore, the presence of a good Internet connection is the key to the productive performance of the employee.
As they say, the medal has two sides. The remote form of employment has its pros and cons. To begin with, we would like to start with the advantages:
Advantages of remote work
Employer Employee
Time saving; Freeschedule;
Save money on utilities and room rentals; Save money and time on transport, commuting to work and back;
Payment to an employee only for the time worked and for a specific project; The ability to work for several employers, which significantly increases income;
Ability to use the labour of necessary employees who live in another city (or country); The probability of being unemployed is low;
Maintaining employment of employee when the company is in an unfavourable position[2]; Sense of freedom. Do not think about the rules of internal order, there is no dress code;
Possibility to travel. Regardless of your departure, the result of work is important to the employer.
As the biggest advantage of remote work, we can confidently consider the possibility of working for people with disabilities. The provision of jobs in remote employment is not disclosed in the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "About social protection of disabled persons in the Republic of Uzbekistan". If these people do not have the opportunity to go to work and need special care, but at the same time have a huge potential, talent and interest in work, why not to organize a remote form of employment for them? Unfortunately, employers provide mostly low-paid work for disabled people, or prefer to refuse their services and pay fines. Among disabled people aged 18 to 35, the proportion with higher or incomplete higher education is about 60 % of the total number of disabled people in this age category. As practice shows, people in this category, having the opportunity to join the labor process, become more able-bodied, proactive and creative employees than employees who do not have physical restrictions. In this case, the advantage of remote work is that such a system can help a person with disabilities to be noticed and evaluated.[3. p. 36]
In addition, remote work is relevant for pregnant women, for large families, who also find it difficult to get to work or hire nannies for children.
Next, we will reveal the disadvantages of remote work. [4. p. 13].
Disadvantages of remote work
Employer Employee
It is not always possible to promptly use the remote employee's labor; Lack of society, organizational environment, team work;
Difficulties of operational management, in particular control; In case of failure of electronic remedies the employee will not be able to receive the task on time and send the completed work on time;
The high cost of a decent software that is able to run uninterruptedly.
Lack of conditions for effective work.
In General, the topic of remote work is quite extensive and raises a great deal of questions. However, we have tried to highlight the most relevant points at the initial stage of the relationship between employers and employees in remote mode.
Now there is a situation where is a special category of remote workers, and there is no legal
regulation. Therefore, the following measures are proposed to improve the legislation and fill this gap.
Firstof all, the Ministry for the development of information technologies and communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan needs to develop a unified system for monitoring remote labor activity of employees, based on which state bodies, enterprises and institutions could create their own control system.
Secondly, the Internet is one of the key factors for remote work. In practice, the parties to an employment contract often exchange electronic materials, and not infrequently encounter variable (sometimes-frequent) failures in the exchange of various types of files. Such failures may lead to delayed fulfillment of the employee's obligations. In this regard, there is a need to improve the quality and speed of the Internet in all regions of our country.
Thirdly, the Analysis of statistical data shows that in the Republic of Uzbekistan the number of working people with disabilities is about 34 thousand people (about 5% of the total number of people with disabilities older than 16 years). [6. p. 1] Thus, promoting employment of people with disabilities remains actual.
In order to employ the vulnerable segment of the population, it is necessary to create reserve jobs in state organizations, committees and departments, as well as in institutions funded from the state budget for the development of remote work.
Review of law sciences References:
1. 75% of Uzbek respondents have a desire to work remotely - March 28, 2019: https://tashkent.hh.uz/article/24368
2. Orlov V. B., Buranshina E. I. remote workplace Management: monograph/Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation, Institute of management and Economics, KAF.Management's. - Khanty-Mansiysk: Yugorsky format, 2015. - P 136.
3. Orlov V. B., Buranshina E. I. Remote work as a new reality of labor relations: Analysis of predisposition factors to remote work / Bulletin of Ugra state University-Issue 4 (35), 2014-P. 40-46
4. Ablyaev C. B., Pushkarev H. H. human resource Management based on computer technologies. - Moscow: Finance and statistics, 2009. - P 176.
6. Gurova I. M. Distance work as a promising form of labor organization for Russian business structures-Moscow: Prommagistral LLC, Russia, 2016-P. 151-155.
7. UNDP Representative office in Uzbekistan: Analytical note. - Vol.: 2018 - P 20.
