Author: LatinAlliance
Given the emergency situation in the country due to the spread of COVID-19, in recent days actions and decrees have been carried out in the labor area by the Ministry of Labor and the CCSS.
We recount the main actions:
Reduction of the working day
The employer may unilaterally modify the employment contracts to reduce the number of hours of the ordinary working day agreed between the parties by up to fifty percent (50%), provided that there is an affectation due to the provocative event that motivates the declaration. of national emergency in the terms established in article 1 of this law and initiate before the Labor Inspectorate of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, within three business days after the start of the reduction in working hours, the respective procedure of authorization. In no case may the number of hours established by law be exceeded for each type of daily shift.
The reduction in the ordinary working day will affect the salary of the worker in the same proportion in which his working day is reduced.
Temporary suspension of the employment contract
The request for temporary suspension of the employment contract must be submitted, in accordance with article 75 of the Labor Code and based on facts that obey the emergency measures issued by the Executive Branch for the cases regulated in subparagraphs a) and b) of the Article 74 of the Labor Code, and within three days after the day on which the event that gave rise to the aforementioned request occurred. The term of three days should be understood as the time that the employer has to request that the suspension of the work contracts, operate from the day the generating event occurred. The employer party interested in temporarily suspending the employment contract based on the causes expressed in article 74 subparagraphs a) and b) of the Labor Code, can manage it at any time, as long as the cause that gave rise to it subsists.
Return to work. Once the deadline for restarting the work has expired, the labor inspectorate will be in charge of informing the resumption of work to the workers, in the terms established by article 77 of the Labor Code.
Telework Application
a) Teleworking: Modality of work that is carried out outside the institution's facilities, using information and communication technologies without affecting the normal performance of other positions, processes and services provided.
b) Official teleworker: Person protected by this regulation, who teleworks in a relationship of dependency or subordination.
c) Teleworking contract: Voluntary agreement signed by the immediate supervisor and the official, in which the information will be established with the necessary conditions to carry out their functions under this type of work.
d) Teleworking positions: Refers to those tasks that can be carried out outside the institution, making use of information and communication technologies, without affecting the normal performance of other positions, processes and services provided.
Teleworking authorization procedure: In compliance with the provisions of Directive No. 073-S-MTSS, the teleworking modality, which is temporarily implemented as a complementary and necessary measure in response to the COVID-19 alert, must be processed through the following procedure, which must conclude in a maximum period of two business days: a. The civil servant must request authorization from his immediate superior, to access the teleworking modality. b. It is the responsibility of the immediate Supervisor to: b.1 Verify that the position held by the applicant official is a teleworking position in accordance with the provisions of point d) of section 2. b.2 Determine the days on which the official You will work under the teleworking modality. In accordance with the provisions of Directive No. 073-S-MTSS, the application of teleworking must be sought during the entire weekday, 3 unless for reasons of the public service provided by the unit where the requesting official works, requires their face-to-face work. during one or more days of the week.
In addition, we share the email in which requests for suspension of the employment contract and reduction of working hours will be received: inspeccionlaboral.emergencia@mtss.go.cr
If you have any questions, you can contact our specialist in Costa Rica: Lic. Alma Monterrey amonterrey@latinalliancecr.com