Techno-stress, work space and other gaps in the Telework NOM according to UNAM

The World Health Organization (WHO) asked the Chinese government for information on the increase in infections and deaths from covid-19. And the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel and South Korea have once again demanded negative tests from those who travel from the Asian giant. It is as if we had already experienced this.

One of the containment measures for the health emergency of the last three years has been teleworking. However, not all sectors can carry it out and a clear regulation is needed so that those who have implemented it are not subject to violations of their labor rights.

In Mexico, since 2020 the Federal Labor Law (LFT) contemplates this type of employment, but the labor authorities have not yet promulgated the final version of the Official Mexican Standard (NOM) 037 on teleworking, which will set the health and safety conditions.

The norm contains definitions “poorly written, poorly conceptualized and, above all, many aspects of teleworking do not appear,” Rodolfo Nava Hernández, coordinator of Occupational Health and Safety at the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, pointed out in an interview. (UNAM).

In July of last year, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) published the NOM-037 project and opened a period to receive comments from citizens, institutions and organizations.

The secretariat document “mentions that teleworking It can be carried out in places other than the workplace, but that remains very ambiguous. In which places and of what kind?” questions the specialist.

In numeral 4.19 of the project, the STPS defines teleworking as the “form of subordinate labor organization that consists of performing paid activities in places other than the workplaceTherefore, the physical presence of the teleworker in it is not required, using information and communication technologies for contact and command between the teleworker and the employer”.

Dr. Nava Hernández’s team studied the project and sent their comments and proposals to the STPS. One of them is to point out “that teleworking must be carried out in a specific and fixed place established by the teleworker”, which would not necessarily be his home.

Technostress and domestic violence

In Mexico, less than 25% of jobs could be done from home, according to the report How many jobs can be done at home? from the US National Bureau of Economic Research. In Sweden and the United Kingdom, this proportion rises to 40%, and in the United States, to 42%, he indicates.

But the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) estimates that the possibilities of working from home in this country could be a reality for 10.6% of jobs, according to the document. How high (low) are the chances of teleworking in Mexico?

At the Latin American and Caribbean level, teleworking has been a reality for a proportion of between 10 and 30% of the working peopleaccording to estimates from the covid-19 Labor Observatory of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

In these years, different countries reformed their laws to regulate the home officelike Mexico. Mexican legislation now contemplates the right to disconnectsince the work overload experienced during the most complicated months of the pandemic made it more difficult to erase the limits of working hours.

The Coordination of Health and Safety at Work of the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM points out that the NOM for Telework lacks the concept of techno-stress. It is “the relative psychological state related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), conditioned by the perception of a maladjustment and that causes a high unpleasant psychophysiological level, as well as the development of negative attitudes towards ICTs” explains Dr. Nava Hernández.

“Is a health problem that can be presented in the worker, but the draft standard does not consider it”. Although he does speak of disconnection, “this must be real after eight hours of work and within that time consider a time to eat.

Los psychosocial risks at home and the gender perspective are two other points that they considered. In Mexico, a country with high rates of domestic violence, it is essential to integrate both concepts, explains the specialist.

In this sense, they also propose introducing the double shift concept. In other words, “work comes to my house, where my children, grandchildren, sick people are. Where teleworkers, mainly, are immersed in the care and sustainability of life”, doing unpaid work such as food preparation, cleaning, or physical and emotional support.

Commuting accident and the workplace

The concept of work accident contemplated in the NOM-037 project is incomplete, the coordination concluded. While the LFT “includes, in addition to injuries, forced disappearance derived from a criminal act”, the draft standard does not take it up again.

The scope of the concept of commuting accident. This, according to the LFT, occurs when moving directly from home to work or vice versa. “But it has to be considered differently for telecommuting.”

The proposal of Nava’s team is to specify that, “when, by instructions from the employer or due to work needs, the teleworker travels to carry out an activity, such as acquiring stationery or supplies, at that moment they have an accident. And the assaults must be considered as a commuting accident.

The observations are also about the workspace conditions remote. “It seems that the worker has the obligation to have the right place in his house, or where he has decided to work, so as not to have an accident or get sick. This responsibility cannot be transferred from the employer to the worker, the employer must assume it”.

The legislation and the NOM must include the obligation to the employer to condition the work environment, improve it and maintain the equipment and provide them with adequate inputs, he says. “If they are provided with a laptop, it should be complemented with an ergonomic keyboard and mouse,” for example.

The LFT indicates that employers must pay a part of the electricity and provide internet service. Although this may seem expensive, it really doesn’t compare to the cost of running an office, he points out.