green book: the future of labour

GREEN BOOK:THE FUTURE OF LABOUR

PUBLIC DISCUSSION PHASEMONERIS' CONTRIBUTIONS

June 22nd 2021

moneris.pt

accounting & reportingtax advisory

human resourcescorporate finance

insurance managementcertified training

• a• t• h• c• 1• 1

1Technical Labour Comitee

https://apcergroup.com/en/certification/standards-search/81/iso-9001

https://www.msiglobal.org/

http://www.moneris.pt/

Framework 3

Motivation 4

Global Appreciation 5

1.2. Dynamics of employment transformation in Portugal 6

1.3. Remote work and telecommuting 7

1.4. Labour on Digital Platforms 8

1.5. Digital Nomads 9

2. Technological diversity, artificial intelligence and algorithms 10

4. Working hours, reconciling work and family life, and the right to disconnect 11

5. Inclusion, equality and non-discrimination 12

6. Social protection in the new ways of working 13

8. Competencies, vocational training and lifelong learning 14

10. Inspection, Safety and Health in the workplace, and new psychosocial risks 15

Who we are 16

GREEN BOOK: THE FUTURE OF LABOUR | MONERIS' CONTRIBUTIONS

Index

2


Framework

We live in an era of constant technological disruption. We are witnessing the emergence of new business models that transform the market and introduce profound changes in work organization and human resources management policies.

The pandemic was responsible for a series of cunjunctural changes in the Portuguese economy with an impact on the labour market, on the transport and trade sector in general, as well as for the implementation of changes that may prove to be structural, such as remote work, massification of videoconference meetings, distance training, among others.

At the economic and financial level, many companies experienced serious difficulties in terms of liquidity and, consequently, of treasury management, in resorting to teleworking due to the high financial investments and the scarcity of equipment due to the interruption of the supply chains, in accessing support and employment incentives.

The Moneris’ Technical Labour Committee has closely followed the concerns and challenges of companies and entrepreneurs, having publicly disclosed several publications, including guides to support the maintenance of jobs, the recovery and normalization of business activity, as well as promoting the development of webinars and pro bono debriefing sessions open to the general public.

Moneris created a Crisis Management Taskforce formed by eight senior specialists from different areas of expertise, enabling a holistic assessment of the needs of the market, in general, and our clients, in particular.

As responsible for providing human resource management solutions, under an outsourcing regime, to entities that employ around 25,000 workers, we assumed our responsibility in reflecting over the future of labour and developing new solutions that contribute to greater sustainability, to fairer and more inclusive work models, to enhance workers' skills, optimize remote work, and other more flexible and hitherto atypical modalities.

Within the available time, we sought to add value to as many topics as possible, expressing our willingness to share additional content, even if at a later stage after the public consultation deadline.

3

TechnicalLabour Comitee

Moneris believes that it has the social responsibility to actively participate in this reflection and share its perceptions and experiences. Our convictions and priorities are aligned with the identified themes, briefly highlighting the following:

• Remote work, telecommuting and the right to disconnect: Moneris actively participated in the reflection of a panel with the theme "Teleworking and the right to disconnect" in the context of Advocatus Summit 2021, an event with the participation of the largest and most representative legal societies in Portugal, which this year joined the consultancy firm Moneris;

• Social Responsibility: finalist in the Human Resources Portugal 2021 Awards in this category and an associate member of GRACE – Group for Reflection and Support to Corporate Citizenship;

• Professional mobility: finalist in the Human Resources Portugal 2021 Awards in this category, which recognizes good practices and successful examples;

• Balance between personal and family life: the results of the Excellence Index, in which Moneris was ranked 3rd in the category of large companies, presented above-average results in this criterion, with an emphasis on the continuous learning dimension;

• Sustainability and inclusion: Moneris, through its CEO, Rui Pedro Almeida, joined an action group composed of corporate leaders whose mission is to contribute to the construction of a shared sustainable future for Europe, called “A New Deal for Europe Towards a sustainable future in the World: CEOs Call To Action”;

• Technological diversity, artificial intelligence and algorithms: we believe that technology is a “complementary force”, in which technology contributes to increase an employee's productivity. We have progressively introduced technologies and tools that automate the performance of simple, routine tasks that do not represent added value and can potentially lead to fatigue and dissatisfaction of the workers who perform them, enabling productivity and higher levels of satisfaction with the performance of activities that demand greater reflection, creativity and collaboration;

• Union and business associations, worker representation, collective contracting and social dialogue: we are members of APECA –Portuguese Association of Accounting and Administration Companies.


Motivation

4


The working version for public consultation of the Green Paper on the future of labour presents a very robust, solid base of work, with a level of depth aligned with the quality that has been presented in previous versions, recognizing the merit of this document for the way it analyses, reflects and projects the impact of trends and recent changes in the labour, social, technological and economic context, incorporating extensive lines of reflection for public policies.

The document is very well founded and supported by independent, credible literature, and embodies a series of concerns and priorities shared by Moneris.

We incorporate in this document the perceptions and reflections of Moneris' Technical Labor Committee and other colleagues who work on the themes of human resources management, maintaining the same thematic designations defined by the working group responsible for preparing the green book.

We sought to only include contributions that add value to the considerations and reflections produced, avoiding redundancies and sharing reflections that are already sufficiently reflected in the green book.

We believe that the lines of reflection for public policies end up becoming, to a large extent, redundant as they are included in the chapter "the future of work: new and old challenges", ending up being repeated to a good extent in the chapter "lines of reflection of public policies for the future of work in Portugal”.

It could be interesting to consider an approach in which each area of intervention systematizes the state of the art and the lines of reflection of public policies in a linked way. Alternatively, for a better systematization of all lines of reflection, it can be sent to an appendix, keeping the base of the green book less redundant.


Global appreciation

5



1.2. Dynamics of employment transformation in Portugal

• Professional careers do not necessarily have to be vertical, there are more and more examples of employees who are interested in taking on less responsibilities, abdicating leadership positions, and being available to adjust their salary in compensation. Assess to what extent public measures can incorporate this context, naturally safeguarding the application of abusive situations;

• Traditionally, hiring young people looking for a first job allowed employers to benefit from exemption from payment of social security charges for a period of up to 36 months, subject to certain conditions. The exemption resulted in a 50% reduction in tax charges for a period of up to 60 months. In the context of the pandemic, several studies point to an increase in youth unemployment, which is why it is recommended to assess the possibility and impact of placing this group at the highest priority level for employment incentives;

• The measures to encourage employment tend to be associated with hiring the most disadvantaged professional groups, regardless of the activity that will be performed, which we believe should be maintained and, if possible, reinforced. Additionally, it is proposed to include the concept of high added value activity in the assumptions of employment incentives as a way to combat the risk of scarcity;

• Simplify the employment of highly qualified foreign workers and their legalization in Portugal, going beyond the proposals foreseen for digital nomads in this document;

• Create a one-stop shop where highly qualified workers can instantly obtain their tax identification number, legal person identification number, NHS user number and residence visa;

• Different generations have different perceptions and valuations concerning compensation and benefits plans. Assess from a fiscal and contributory point of view to what extent it is possible to simplify the implementation of more flexible policies;

• About 30,000 employers recognized the goodness of the CONVERTE+ measure, which probably exhausted the available budget allocation. Assess the possibility of increasing the budget allocation and assess a longer period, given that the 3 months for the submission of applications may have been reduced or assess the creation of an equivalent measure that follows the same objectives;

• Promote the update of the national classification of professions, whose latest version dates back to 2010 and is outdated;

• Encourage and value volunteering, as well as the performance of social activities, evaluating granting of benefits, for example in the contributory career of social security.

6



1.3. Remote work and Telecommuting

7

• Telecommuting can allow for greater flexibility and be perceived by some workers as a benefit, but it is desirable to promote codes of conduct that settle principles and rules to mitigate the various disadvantages of remote work, well identified in the green book;

• Clarify the boundaries between work and rest periods;

• Clarify the concept of the workplace, especially in cases where the employee performs their functions in multiple locations, such as their usual residence, their secondary residence, a co-working space, among others;

• Reflect and promote alternatives to working hours records for employees who perform their duties outside of a physical space controlled by the employer;

• Communication with telecommuting employees must be proportional to their needs, as should the tone and sense of urgency be adequate to their purpose;

• Evaluate the implementation of policies that promote the optimization of work processes, given that excess work and the accumulation of pending issues can contribute to increased levels of anxiety and stress and, consequently, increase the risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases. Consider the recent study published by the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization on the impact of stress on workers' health 1. Studies on excessive working hours seem to suggest that long working hours and overwork can result in a public health problem;

• On the other hand, to promote policies that avoid situations of emptying of functions, given the absence or insufficiency of tasks to be performed;

• Provide a set of training areas that may appear as mandatory for the remote worker, such as: time and stress management; focus, communication and information technologies; safety and health in the context of telecommuting;

• Reflect on the risks work information leaks and clarify the roles of the employer and employee in safeguarding confidential information and responsibilities in the event of damage;

• When implementing hybrid models, respecting the right to individuality and listening to all workers about their preferences;

• Include informal caregivers in the list of cases in which the worker has the right to access telework (see page 53).

1. https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/global-regional-and-national-burdens-of-ischemic-heart-disease-and-stroke-attributable-to-exposure-to-long-working-hours-for-194-countries-2000-2016, published on 05/17/2021


https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/global-regional-and-national-burdens-of-ischemic-heart-disease-and-stroke-attributable-to-exposure-to-long-working-hours-for-194-countries-2000-2016


1.4. Labour on Digital Platforms

8

• Concerning the presumption of labour, assess the degree of economic dependence given that some of the people who provide services to the platforms do not work on an exclusive basis, carrying out a specific activity and/or complementary to a regular activity as a way of obtaining a complementary income;

• Greater protection of non-liberal professions with low qualifications, which have fewer professional opportunities and are more exposed to atypical and less regulated work modalities;

• Evaluate the way of record and measurement of working times, given that in certain professions the activity is registered by the platform at the time of execution of the task, not considering the interim time between tasks;

• Seek to be the entity that takes the initiative to terminate the contractual relationship, whether the platform or the worker, for the purpose of assessing an involuntary unemployment situation;

• The service user ends up having a “disciplinary” power through the assessment attributed in accordance with criteria that may have a very high degree of dispersion and which, ultimately, may lead to the termination of the contractual relationship. Although we consider meritocracy to be positive, it is necessary to safeguard possible situations of injustice, as well as the occurrence of transgression situations as a way of satisfying an evaluator's request.



1.5. Digital Nomads

9

• Promoting the legal framework that enables employers to hire employees under a remote work regime, especially when it comes to carrying out work in different locations, as well as defining the criteria to which the employer can limit or circumscribe the mobility of digital nomads to certain continents, regions or countries;

• Evaluate the way of record and measurement of working times of digital nomads who share in this chapter the same challenge as workers in a telecommute regime;

• Reflect on the cost of expenses related to the mobility of digital nomads related to the change of residence, travel insurance, computer goods and equipment and, especially in which contexts where there should be a contribution from the employer;

• Assess to what extent employers can demand the physical presence of a digital nomad worker and the requirements for this in terms of prior notice, costing of expenses, among others;

• Assess the fiscal impact of digital nomadic workers, especially when their center of interests is not clear, and may, ultimately, find themselves in constant travelling;

• Reflect on the promotion of safety and health, as well as on the employer's duties in the context of digital nomads;

• A question for reflection: could the permanent presence of a digital nomad in any given country represent any risk of applying the labourlegislation of that country?



2. Technological diversity, artificial intelligence and algorithms

10

• Reflect from a fiscal and contributory point of view, the role of robotics, artificial intelligence and algorithms in the net decrease in employment, finding adequate solutions that also consider the impact on innovation that technological diversity can represent;

• Promote incentives to the development of skills to develop technological solutions, given there is a know shortage of skills in these areas;

• Promote dematerialization and digitization in public administration entities and in their relationship with companies and workers;

• Identify the professions with greater propensity to be automated and extinct in the short to medium term and identify a professional retraining plan for these workers.



4. Working hours, reconciling work and family life, and the right to disconnect

11

• The European Parliament resolution on the right to disconnect puts forward recommendations to ensure that employers cannot require their employees to be available outside their working hours and that co-workers should also avoid, during these periods, related contacts with work, ignoring that in many professions there are contacts made directly by other stakeholders, such as customers or suppliers;

• Promote the implementation of codes of conduct signed by all stakeholders in order to address this issue holistically;

• Assess which is the most appropriate thinking model: whether we are facing the right to disconnect (the worker can exercise his right) for an employee safeguard thinking model (the company has the duty);

• Whenever possible, incorporate solutions (technological or not) that allow to identify that a certain person is on his/her break/rest/vacation period, in compliance with the data protection regime, avoiding an unwanted contact;

• Promote the implementation of good practices in communication via email, including information about the next period of absence, data about the time zone, as well as information to support the management of expectations, such as no need for a response or predictability of a reply within a given time period;

• Likewise, promoting the implementation of routines that limit the delivery of emails outside certain periods, safeguarding cases where the sender and the receiver are in different time zones;

• Regardless of the technologies that may be adopted, we believe that the right to disconnect goes far beyond the implementation of rules on the use of telephones and mailboxes, as this is a phenomenon on a global scale that is not limited to the employer / employee binomial , for which we defend the inclusion of other stakeholders in the reflection process;

• We are facing a transversal and universal challenge, as a result of the dependence on the use of digital equipment that keep us active from the moment we wake up to bedtime, that similarly limit the conciliation between professional and family life, and therefore this issue must be addressed from the point of view of society, in general, and labour, in particular;

• Review the financial incentives that allow parents to provide greater support for their children, especially in the case of single-parent, large and young families.



5. Inclusion, equality and non-discrimination

12

• Promote and hold discussion forums and encourage the participation of the companies and most disadvantaged groups in the production of knowledge and good practices.



6. Social protection in the new ways of working

13

• To promote a social protection system for workers who are economically dependent on new ways of providing work who are in a more unfavorable situation than those who find in these activities a means of achieving a complementary income.



8. Competencies, vocational training and lifelong learning

14

• Evaluate to which extent does certified vocational training contribute to the recognition of credits and or the process of school equivalency up to the level of compulsory minimum education.



10. Inspection, Safety and Health in the workplace, and new psychosocial risks

15

• Clarify the concepts of workplace accidents in the context of remote work, telecommute, digital nomad workers, among others;

• Reflect on risk assessment in work environments that are not controlled by the employer, such as the employee's home.

Example: In the event of a fire due to an overload of equipment on the same energy source or a faulty electrical circuit, who is responsible? From the employer because it took place during the working period? or the employee who did not have the proper equipment/ using it correctly?

• Re-evaluate the concept of workplace for the purposes of determining responsibilities in the event of an accident to address the modalities of remote work, telecommute, digital nomad workers, etc.


Moneris has a customer-focused approach, with an integrated offer of services and solutions that provide organizations with a 360-degree support in the area of management, promoting excellence in financial information and improving critical decision-making processes for their success.

We are the largest national accounting and management support group, present from north to south of Portugal, with a network of 20 offices, supported by approximately 300 consultants.

We assume the responsibility for the payroll and administrative human resources management for around 25,000 employees of client companies and we actively participate in the labour compliance of their processes and procedures.

We have closely followed the policies that support employment and promote the employability for disadvantaged groups, through advising to the preparation of applications on behalf of our clients.

We promote technical excellence and technological innovation through Knowledge Centers, where we bring together the most experienced specialists from each area, who identify trends and indoctrinate the entire organization, allowing a continuous update and cutting-edge solutions presented by our consultants, such as our Technical LabourCommittee.

The Technical Labour Committee’s Mission is to:

• Issue technical content that informs our customers and the market;• Develop Moneris' services and solutions, supporting their

implementation;• Analyze, interpret and issue technical opinions (external scope);• Produce technical understandings and interpretations (internal scope);• Actively contribute to the quality and rigor of the services provided to

Moneris' customers;• Monitor the Expertise Comittees that are part of its knowledge

dimension;• Identify needs and define training actions that contribute to the

development of employees.


Who we are

16


Technical Labour Committee (TLC)[email protected]

Francisco FernandesHR PartnerTLC [email protected]

europeafricaamericaasiaoceania

mailto:[email protected]



green book: the future of labour

Documents