원격근무자 보호 관련 노동법적 쟁점 -프랑스 및 스페인의 원격근무자 보호 관련 규정 검토를 중심으로

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of our lives. One of them is the change in the way they work. In fact, telework is not a new concept for us. Nevertheless, the implementation of telework was not activated due to the vertical organizational Culture which places a priority on face-to-face work and working attitude and various labour law issues in Korea, However, with a rapid development in information and communications technology(ICT), and a social phenomenon that places importance on work and life balance of worker, telework was be introduced passively as a form of flexible work place. With the emergence and spread of the Covid-19 this year, telework has become not only a way of flexible working, but also a method of survival without choice. However, there are no relevant laws and regulations in Korea yet, as for labour regulations only the Ministry of Employment and labour's 「Guideline on labour Relations Act for Spreading Smart Work」 in 2011 and 「Guideline for working at home」 released in April of this year to deal with the spread of working at home due to the Corona 19 virus. Telework, which already started with insufficient relevant guidelines and regulations, has side effects such as invasion of privacy for teleworkers and as such, the meaning of autonomy and flexibility for worker which are the advantages of teleworking, is gradually disappearing. In France, which is facing the same crisis as ours, starting with the 「European framework agreement on telework」 in 2002, the National Industrial Agreement(ANI) between employers and unions was concluded in 2005 and then the related regulations were stipulated in the Labour Code in 2012. Also, recently, the Spanish government prepared the 「Emergency legislation」 in September this year after the worsened COVID-19 situation. The COVID-19 pandemic is still unsafe and the emergence of another pandemic in the future cannot be overlooked, Therefore, it’s the time to enact a new law to set up the concept and standards for teleworking, and to prepare legal protection in terms of labour law for teleworkers who work in special working conditions and environments. In this article, the relevant regulations of France and Spain were reviewed and compared with the two guidelines for 2011 and 2020 of the Ministry of Employment and Labour of Korea. In order for telework to be positioned in the right direction in Korea in the future, the form and content of the law appropriate to our working environment must be prepared through consultation between employers and unions.