More and more companies are looking for a policy and/or rules (whether on paper or not) for remote working and workations. After all, what are the legal workation ground rules? The need for employees to have the freedom to work anywhere is growing. In addition, there is often the desire to work from abroad for long or short periods of time. In order to help you set the right conditions, I interviewed employment lawyer Suzanne Meijers. We also previously recorded a podcast together on this issue.
What is meant by a workation?
What exactly is a workation? And is there a limit to its duration? Workation has no legal definition and it is also a fairly new phenomenon in labor law. That makes that there are no rules about the duration of a workation. But you can imagine that, as a rule, it ranges from a few weeks to a few months at most. In general, your employee will go on vacation partly and work partly as well.
When are you allowed to refuse a workation?
In short, you may refuse a request on any reasonable ground. But that’s not always a good idea. Consider the mutual relationships. And it can actually be a good additional condition of employment to bind people to your organization.
Why is it useful to form a workation policy as a company?
You notice that more and more employees are asking for a workation. If you decide to offer the option of workation as a standard condition of employment, it is always a good idea to lay down the ground rules in a policy. In this blog you will find examples of workation rules from three companies that Alieke spoke to earlier. They share their rules and vision on remote working and give practical examples of their prerequisites.
What is advisable to include in a workation policy?
I recommend at least considering the following questions and arranging something about them:
- Does it apply to every employee or only if he/she/X has been working for you for a certain amount of time?
- How does your employee apply for it and who deals with consent?
- What is the maximum number of weeks or months your employee can be on workstation?
- How do you ensure adequate IT security?
- What do you agree on about accessibility?
- Is there a professional setting without the noise of, say, a coffee shop when there are online meetings?
- What to do if your employee gets sick during workation?
- Does your employee take partial vacation days or other paid or unpaid leave?
There may also be tax or social security rules to consider. This also depends on the duration of the workation and the country being visited.
What frameworks are useful to set for a workation?
What preconditions apply going forward for a workation and what frameworks should you set? The answer to this is related to the answer to the previous question. A few points are especially important. Because if your employee gets sick before leaving or is sick at the time of application then it is not a good idea to let him leave. Especially since it is difficult to meet reintegration obligations at a distance back and forth. In Provence, of course, there is no time difference. If your employee is going to work from Bali, then there is. Either way, you can’t get around the fact that your employee is not continuously available. Managing for output is therefore important. It is also important to make good arrangements about the (online) presence at any meetings. It is easy to agree in advance that your employee will be available at set times for one or two half-days a week.
What about taking vacation and other forms of leave?
This is, of course, no different than how you arrange it when an employee works in the Netherlands. But especially with a workation, work and vacation time can get mixed up and it is no longer entirely clear what label you can put on it. You should therefore agree in advance on how you will handle vacation time. After all, your employee must also be given sufficient time to recover and you do not want to be stuck with a leave accumulation because your employee is working all the time at the vacation address. Perhaps unpaid leave is an option if the leave balance is insufficient.
Are there any practical obligations?
For example, should you make arrangements for Internet connection and ergonomic workstation? Sure. You have to agree well with each other from where your employee can work. Is there a good Internet connection and does he use his own data bundle or the company’s for that? Of course, security must also be in order. Of course, you don’t have to set up the workplace completely ergonomically, as is arranged in the office or the home office. At the same time, you also want to prevent your employee from constantly sitting on the edge of the pool bent over the laptop, causing neck pain. So raise this concern up front.
What challenges are at play around workations/remote working?
With so much working from home, most companies are now accustomed to not having a continuous check or view of what your employee is doing. Workations take this a step further. If workations are limited in duration, it seems to me that the legal challenges are also manageable. If you have a clear policy as an organization, you can offer a nice employment benefit.
The workation rules in brief
If you grant the workation request, at least make good agreements about: availability, the Internet, the workplace and expectations about the work. These are important workation rules to agree on. If you decline the request, you may do so for the time being without much explanation. Generally speaking, that probably won’t do relations any good. So it is wise to at least include your employee in your thoughts and how you reasonably arrive at the rejection.
Also listen to the podcast
For NRC, Alieke and Suzanne recorded a podcast together about workation rules. Because as an employer and employee, what all do you have to think about when it comes to a workation? Listen to the podcast here. Suzanne Meijers is an employment lawyer and author of the book “No hassle with personnel, employment law for entrepreneurs. She blogs regularly on current topics through her website. Media also know how to find her regularly for employment law input.
