Despite its values, the need for telework is still frowned-upon

SANCTI SPIRITUS, Cuba, Jul 15 (ACN) “Despite the insistence of the authorities to increase the number of workers who work from home, many managers still fail to understand the need to take this measure,” Yaiselín Quesada López, deputy director of Employment at the Labor Division in the province of Sancti Spíritus told ACN.

“Right now, 21,842 state sector employees in Sancti Spiritus are teleworking, some 10,000 less than last year, even if the epidemiological situation is now much more complex,” she pointed out.

Quesada López called on the directors of state institutions to be more aware of the advantages of this type of employment, which does not require a permanent physical presence in the workplace and helps avoid COVID-19 contagion, currently a serious problem in Cuba and, particularly, in Sancti Spiritus.

According to experts in the field, telework also allows for more flexible work schedules, which favors productivity, product/service quality, and a reduction of institutional expenses in terms of electricity, water and other resources.

This arrangement can have three forms: telecommuting, home-based work, and field work, depending on the circumstances.

The first modality applies to people who have a computer and telephone at home and an Internet or e-mail connection. It is typical of professionals in different fields of knowledge.

As to home-based work, technology is a requirement but not the Internet. At certain times the employee can deliver information in person at the workplace. Field work, in turn, is carried out by those who, because of their activity, are regularly in public spaces, for example, inspectors and operators engaged in sanitation campaigns.

Management control over these types of work, as per the current Labor Code, is based on a formal contract between employee and employer whereby the contracted person undertakes to perform efficiently a given task and observe the rules of discipline and any other agreed upon.

Government authorities in the province of Sancti Spiritus claim that it is possible to increase telecommuting in provisional circumstances such as those imposed by COVID-19, but also at any other time and in any field of the economy.