Tel Aviv conference tackles labor law and remote work

Managing employees in the global era is a subject that troubles many organizations and companies and as a result their lawyers as well. Herzog law firm, in collaboration with international law firm DLA Piper and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), held a conference last week in the presence of senior officials from the legal sector.

The conference hosted experts from DLA Piper who arrived from China, the US, the UAE, Italy, the UK, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. The participants referred in the various panels to the phenomena that are occurring here in Israel and gave their perspective to the prominent global trends.

“Working from home has recently been anchored in law in several countries, although it is becoming clear that there is no consensus on the subject”, Adv. Kai Bodenstedt, DLA Piper Hamburg Co-Country Managing Partner and head of the labor law department said during the conference, “Places of employment must pay for the expenses for working at home for each employee. Among the recognized expenses are electricity bills, water, Internet and even participating in paying rent.”

Adv. Johnny Choi, DLA Piper Beijing head of labor law department explained that in China the situation is reversed. “China does not see working from home as the norm. At present, it is only acceptable for somebody who is in quarantine to work outside of the office.”

Adv. Daniel Turnisky, DLA Piper New York partner, added that “In the US remote working is very well established and there to stay. Most firms have adopted remote or hybrid options. It is not covid related anymore rather a recruitment tool. Global employers need to keep in mind that 50 different countries mean 50 different laws you have to comply with, and in some cases, even cities in the same state can have different laws.

Employers need to give a lot of consideration and thought to where the employee is actually going to be working since this can cause several problems such as hourly wage, health and safety issues”

And what about Israel? Herzog law firm partner in the labor and employment law department Adv. Abigail Borowitz said, “In Israel, an employee does not have a vested right to make the employer share the expenses in working at home. However, the more bargaining power that an employee has, over time the change will happen in the field. There is already today a practice of granting employees vouchers to purchase equipment for working from home.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on November 16, 2022.

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