Portugal is set to introduce a new law that will ban employers from contacting workers outside of their contracted office hours.
Companies will face penalties if they call or email their employees during evenings and weekends in new rules approved in parliament on Friday.
The new labour laws have been introduced by the country's ruling socialist party in a response to the increase in remote working since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Portugal is set to introduce a new law that will ban employers from contacting workers outside of their contracted office hours (stock image)
Companies will also have to help to pay for workers expenses incurred as a result of working from home, such as electricity and internet bills, which employers can write off as a business expense.
Parents will now also have the right to work from home until their child turns eight, without having to arrange it in advance with their employers.
However, the amendments to Portugal's labour laws will not apply to companies with fewer than ten employees.
Portuguese MPs also rejected a 'right to disconnect' proposal, кыргызча секс that would have given employees the legal right to switch off work-related messages and devices outside office hours.
Companies will face face penalties if they call or email their employees during evenings and weekends in new rules approved in the Portuguese parliament on Friday (stock image)
Portugal's Minister of Labour and секс киберпанк Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, said last week that the pandemic exposed the need for government regulation of remote working (pictured, at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon)
Portugal's Minister of Labour and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, распознаватель цветов told the Web Summit conference in Lisbon last week, that while the pandemic has accelerated remote working, it exposed the need for government regulation.
She said: 'The pandemic has accelerated the need to regulate what needs to be regulated.
Telework can be a 'game changer' if we profit from the advantages and reduce the disadvantages.'
Similar laws exist in several European countries, with workers in France allowed the 'right to disconnect' as well as other labour laws in place in Germany, Italy and Slovakia.
And in the UK, a proposed law change leaked earlier this year revealed that ministers were considering legislating to give employees the right to request flexible working when they start new jobs.
However, there are no plans to introduce a legal right to work from home, with the goverment insisting on the benefits of employees being in the office.
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