Employers call for equality for work from home

Employers’ organisation OEV has pointed out that private sector employers are obliged to abide by a strict framework for allowing their staff to work from home, while a bill being discussed at parliament on Thursday does not impose the same obligations on the state.

The House finance committee has discussed the bill in six sessions and the issue is now on the plenum’s agenda for Thursday.

OEV general director Michalis Antoniou called on the House finance committee to take the issue into consideration when discussing the bill for civil servants, as there is a clear disparity between the private and public sectors.

Antoniou told local media that the 2023 law regulating remote work included a series of clauses regarding the health and safety of employees.

Employers must obtain a written evaluation of the risks for working remotely, set out the preventive and precautionary measures to be taken based on the evaluation and provide information, instructions and training to secure the health and safety of employees.

This, Antoniou said, created a strict framework of responsibilities for the employers, who did not have access to homes, apartments and other spaces being used for working remotely and had no way of inspecting or supervising these spaces.

On the other hand, the proposed law for civil servants working from home did not provide for such arrangements by the state as their employer.

The bill, he said, sets out various preconditions but did not introduce obligations regarding the health and safety of civil servants.

This, Antoniou added, created a discrepancy that was not compatible with the principle of equal treatment, despite the fact that working from home bore the same risks for both private and public sector employees.

He furthermore pointed out that private sector employers were responsible for covering the cost of working from home, which did not apply for the state in the proposed legislation.

The bill is part of a package of measures for flexible forms of employment in the civil service, allowing employees to opt to work from home for a certain number of days per year and be physically present at their workplace for the rest of the time.

Flexible forms of employment have been included in Cyprus’ recovery and resilience plan and, according to the second milestone of reforms, this type of employment should have already been in force since January 1, 2025.

The milestone is linked to the seventh instalment from the plan, for which the payment request will be submitted by the government before the end of 2025.