On the border of the physical and the virtual workplace – Dogmatic issues of home office and telework in general and in Hungarian law

.﻿The﻿purpose﻿of﻿this﻿ paper﻿is﻿to﻿present﻿the﻿new﻿legislation,﻿with﻿particular﻿attention﻿to﻿the﻿points﻿at﻿issue﻿ and﻿the﻿basics﻿of﻿its﻿application﻿in﻿practice.﻿


Introduction
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has fundamentally changed our daily lives.This is true for our general relationships, but also for ourrelationshiptowardswork.Itisintherelationtoworkthatthere has been a realisation on all sides of the labour market that it is possible to do things differently.Digital technology, which was already partofeverydaylifeformanypeople,cametotheforeduringthefirst closures and later because of social distance.A significant proportion ofemployershadtorecognisetheneedtoletgoofface-to-faceworking, at least for a while 1 .The use of previously cautious legal instruments,suchasteleworkingandthehomeofficehascometothefore 2 .Questions appeared such as what can be considered a workplace 3 .In addition to general questions, there has also been also a strong focus onspecificissues.Onesuchissueisthequestionofjobsecurity 4 .
The importance of the above-mentioned issues has also increased at an unusually fast pace, partly because of the pandemic, which has led to the rise of home office use in the last few years among people working from the office in traditional employment.The aim was to keep the distance in the face of the pandemic, and digitalisation has madethisfeasible,asitisnowpossibletoworkjustaseffectivelyfrom homeduetothedevelopmentofinternetandcomputers.
Inthelightoftoday'schallenges,theimportanceofeffectiveprotection against health and safety risks at work is becoming increasingly apparentinordertoensuresustainableanddecentworkingconditions for workers.Ensuring the right to a healthy working environment 5 is On the border of the physical and the virtual workplace… s.3z21 of paramount importance in all employment relationships.The guaranteeofasafeworkingenvironmentthatdoesnotendangerhealthis a fundamental requirement of the employment relationship, as it can determine how and for how long the relationship can properly fulfil its purpose.Ensuring adequate working conditions, irrespective of theplaceofwork,isessentialinordertoenableworkerstocarryout theirdutiestothefullestextentpossible,whilepreservingtheirhealth and contributing to the economic competitiveness and productivity of the employer's organisation 6 .Home office, teleworking and digital technologies offer new challenges and opportunities as well in terms of managing health and safety risks and achieving and maintaining work-lifebalance.
However,forpractice,thishasraisedanumberofunexpectedquestions.Thecriticalpointswerebasicallyhowtodeterminetheplaceof work,theextentofhomeworkingandtheproblemoftheneedforan agreementinthetransitiontohomeoffice,especiallyaseachcompany had different practices.Some imposed home-working, some concludedagreementswithemployees(withvaryingcontent),whileinothers employees shaped the right to this type of work 7 .The fact that the Labour Code did not and does not explicitly provide for home office hasmadeitdifficultforemployers.

The transformation of workplaces
Inthecontextofsocialinnovation,anumberofnewformsofemployment have recently developed.The emergence of new forms of employmentislinkedtodigitalisation.Digitalisationhaschangedthe relationship between employer and employee.This relationship extendstothirdpartiesnotcoveredbytheemploymentcontractbutinvolvedinthelegalrelationship.Theemployeeandtheemployerhave a contractual relationship within the framework of the classical employmentrelationship 11 .
The question of the content of contracts is a very important issue.It sets out the basic terms and conditions between the parties, such as the job title, basic salary and working hours.The strength of contractsisrootedintheparties'mutualconsentandintheprovisionsof the Labour Code.It sets out the legal framework and paradigms for typicalemploymentrelationshipsonaclassicalbasis.Classicalla bour relationsarebasedontheinstitutionofsocialsecurity.Themaincharacteristics of a typical employment relationship are dependency and personalrelationships(positionsbasedontrust giveinstructions.Therelationshipbetweenemployerandemployeeis traditionallycloseinclassicalemploymentrelationships.Therelationship is active and, given the characteristics of the legal relationship, mostly direct and interactive within the framework provided by the social contract and the contracts.The direct and interactive relationshipresultsfromthefactthattheemployerandtheemployeeareusually in the same place, at the workplace, during working hours.The geographical proximity between the parties is a very important elementoftheemploymentrelationship,sincetheemployercanexercise his powers as an employer to the fullest extent when the geographical distance between the parties is the smallest.Of course, the above statementistoosimplisticindescribingthelegalrelationshipbetween theparties,butitisappropriateforthetimebeingforthepurposesof examiningtheworkplace.Toourstartingpoint,itisnecessarytoadd thatthedefinitionofemployerintypicalemploymentrelationshipsis to some extent unlimited.This kind of certain limitation is strongly linked to the dependency relations that characterise the employment relationship.
However, this relationship is constantly changing, due to the introduction of forms of work that are strongly linked to digitalisation.Theprocessofdigitalisationhasacceleratedthetransformationofthe workplace.The process of transformation is increasingly moving in the direction of making some of the jobs that exist in physical space redundant.The role of the workplace needs to be rethought from a legal, economic and even architectural point of view 12 .Some of these newlivingarrangementscanbecategorisedwithinalegalframework defined by labour law or other private law rules as a named or unnamed legal relationship.Others, however, cannot be categorised because there is no previous history to which they can be compared, evenbyanalogy.Wewillnotanalysealltheformshere,butwewould liketohighlighttheonethathasemergedasoneofthemostimportant duringthepandemic.Inthecontextofthisstudy,asalreadyindicated in the introduction, we will examine the relationship between home office and teleworking.However, in order to examine the issue in a meaningful way, it is also worth looking at the reasons for and the processofworkplacetransformation.
Thenormofsocialdistancingduringthepandemichascontributed significantly to the growing importance of home office and teleworking.This norm is that people should be located at certain distances fromeachothertoreducethespreadofinfection.Butwhyisthisrule important?It is because in a physical workplace, every useful floor space has a function, e.g. the position of the machines is defined, the protection distances are accurately calculated, there are important requirementsfortheconstructionofescaperoutes,therearepreciserules on accessibility, etc.In most cases, it is very difficult or impossible to overcome social distance in these places.It was therefore significant thatteleworkingandhomeofficewereseenasanaturalalternativein jobswhereworkingfromhomewaspossible.
A change in the employer-employee relationship is inevitable in these changing circumstances.The question that needs to be considered here is what form could a trust-based relationship take when personalisationisreduced?One,butnottheonlyresultofthelossof personalcharacteristhattheemployeehasmovedfromarelationship ofpersonaldependencetotheoneofeconomicdependence 13 .Thedegree of personal dependence was only marginally significant before the pandemic, as some atypical forms of employment have cancelled out this type of relationship.Teleworking, which we have studied, is thefirstatypicalformofworkthathasincreasedthedistancebetween people as well as the physical distance 14 .However, not only physical distance appeared in these relations, but also instances of a new type of contact represented by digital tools.The movement of work andworkeriscompletelyparallelinthesensethattheworkercando 13 Examiningtheevolutionarydevelopmentoflabourlaw,itcanbesaidthatitwas basicallytheconstantchangesinthesocialandeconomicenvironmentthatinfluenced thedominanceofeconomicdependenceorpersonalhierarchicaldependenceincertain periods.L.Berényi:Gondolatok a munkajog dogmatikai fejlődéséről, különös tekintettel a munkáltatói koncepció alakulására."PolgáriSzemle"2021,17:4-6,pp.423-432,DOI:10.24307/ psz.2021.1231. 14 G. Mélypataki, D.A. Máté: Necessity of Reconsideration of Labour Law Relations -Pandemic, Labour Market, Social Innovation."ZProblematykiPrawaPracyiPolitykiSocjalnej"2021,19:5.Paper:zpppips.2021.19.05.s.1.z.19.,Doi:10.31261/zpppips.2021.19.05.On the border of the physical and the virtual workplace… s.7z21 his/her work from home.In this way, part of the production could be saved.For some companies, this solution has worked so well that theydonotplantoreturntopreviousworkingpatterns,ordosoonly partially,afterthemajorwavesofthepandemichavepassed.
Thekeyquestionis:whatisthemotivationforemployerstomaintain at least part of the teleworking and home office options?Is it efficiency,lowcosts,oreaseoforganisation?Oneofthefirstissueswhen considering teleworking or home office is how efficient it is.Sceptics do not consider it equivalent to working in a physical workplace.However, there is no evidence that the quality of work has a significantimpactonwhetheritisdonefromhomeorinanoffice.Bothhave theiradvantagesanddisadvantages.Someresearchhighlightsthatjobs with measurable work performance are also suitable for teleworking.Suchquantificationprovidesconcreteinformationontheperformance of teleworkers, which can counteract managers' concerns about the lackofmonitoringoftelework 15 .ThisissupportedbyaSpanishmodel experiment called the Concilia Plan16 .The performance of the homeworking workers studied was not inferior to that of office workers.However, one thing to bear in mind when examining effectiveness is that the ability to work from home is linked to prestige and status, as senior and skilled workers are more likely than others to do the typeofworkthatcanbedoneremotely 17 .Thishaschangedduringthe pandemictotheextentthatcoercionhasbroughtaboutthedemocratisationofteleworking.Bythiswemeanthatmanymorepeoplehave access to this type of work than before.It remains to be seen exactly howmuchoftheformersomewhatelitistperceptionisreturningand howmuchofthedemocratisedperceptionisbeingretained?
Inthecaseofteleworking,theuseofequipmentisamajorissue.The devices used by the employee and the employer form a transfer zone whereinformationcanflowfreelybetweentheparties.Byinformation, we mean the transmission of the results of the work to the employer.This approach is based on the conceptual approach of the Framework Directive on telework.This is important to highlight because we will seethatnotallinterpretationsgiveitsuchprominence.Butatthesame timeitisimportanttounderlinetheneedforatransferzone.Asalready pointedoutbyGarryandHodsoninastudyasearlyas1993,thetransferofinformationthroughnetworkedcommunicationsandinformation technology to people sitting comfortably at home rather than in rush 18 EUstrategicframeworkonhealthandsafetyatwork2021-2027,Occupationalsafetyandhealthinachangingworldofwork,EuropeanCommission,Brussels,28.6.2021COM(2021)323final,2,7.
On the border of the physical and the virtual workplace… s.9z21 hourtrafficseemstobeaconceptthatisconsistentwiththeinformation societyandtheinformationeconomy.Workwillgotopeople,notpeople going to work 19 .Along with this, a new form of mobility has been broughtaboutbytelecommuting.Peoplesavetimebyspendingtimeat homeratherthantravelling,whichcanleadusbacktoefficiency,asbeingabletostartworkatonceimpliesbeingabletoworkmoreefficiently.ThetrioofCano,HataroandZapateroreinforcethislineofthinking byexplainingthattoday'scentralisedworkplacewasarelativelyrecent phenomenonevenin1993,asbeforetheindustrialrevolutionmostpeopleworkedathomeorclosetohome 20 .Thiscanbeseenasareturnto the roots of teleworking and home office, a return that preserves the traditions of the past, but implies a completely new methodology and useoftools.Thisissignalledbytheduplicationoftheworkplace.There will be a physical workplace from which instructions will come.This doesnotexcludethepossibilitythat,fortheemployer,thephysicaland digital workplace may coincide.The employee's home also becomes a digital workspace through the device on which they work.Physically, s/heissittingintheirownhome,buttheactualworkisdoneontheIT device.Thus,inourview,thedigitalworkplaceandthephysicalworkplacearelargelysplitfortheemployee.
The question is, however, how far can legislative and academic conceptualisation follow the motivations and established practices of the parties?To what extent does regulation itself shape practice?In whatfollows,wewilllookatthisinthelightofthehistoryoftelework andhomeofficeregulationanditsactualapplicationinpractice.

The past and present of teleworking
The key features of teleworking are the use of a computer, electronictransmissionofworkresults,regularityandaplaceofworkthat is separate from the employer's premises 21 .This location can be the employee's home, but it is not the only place where teleworking can takeplace.Itmayalsobecarriedoutatotherlocationsdeterminedby the employer (see for example teleworking in so-called "telecentres") ortheemployeemaychoosetoworkatanotherlocation 22 .Inaddition, the employee may be present, not regularly, and may exceptionally work on the employer's premises for a limited period of time, as the employermustprovidetheopportunitytodoundertheLabourCode.Suchworkmayincludeattendingmeetings,reportingtosupervisors, etc.In comparison, different authors have associated different qualifierswiththehomeoffice.Letusnowputasidetheemergencyregulations,whichallowedfor exceptionalderogations,butonlyonatemporarybasis.Firstofall,we havetoseethattheplaceofworkisessentiallyamatterofagreement, whichcanonlybedefinedintheemploymentcontractorinitsamendment,andthereforerequiresconsensus.
Article 53 of the Labour Code allows, within narrow limits, for work outside the employment contract in exceptional cases, but the maximum time limit is forty-four scheduled working days or three hundredandfifty-twohourspercalendaryear.Thiscouldbeconsidered as home office outside the framework of the employment contract,butitcouldnotallowthepartiestoswitchcompletely,asithas astatutorytimelimit.
A better solution was and could be home office within the frameworkoftheemploymentcontract,wherethepartiesdesignateboththe employee'shomeandtheemployer'spremisesastheplaceofworkthe employer's instructions will then determine where the employee willwork.Aversionofthis,ifpossible,istodesignateamunicipality as the place of work, which is the place of the employer's establishment and, as is necessary for the present solution, the place of residenceoftheemployee 27 .

s.12z21
Wemaythinkthatwehavecometotheendofthecircleandeverythingisinorder,butthepracticehasofcourseproducedfurtherproblems.Therewasthequestionoftheapplicationoflegalconsequences, i.e. if the employee works at home in a home office, are the general rules(suchasthoseconcerninginstructionsoroccupationalhealthand safety)applicabletotheemployeroraretheydifferentfromthoseapplicable to teleworking.There was no uniform employer practice on thiseither.

Future
InDecember2021,ActCXXXof2021onCertainRegulatoryIssues Related to Emergency Situations (hereinafter: Act on Amendments) was adopted to settle this, amending the rules of the Labour Code onteleworkwitheffectfromthe endoftheemergencysituation.The homeofficehasstillnotbeendefinedasaseparatelegalterm,soithas notbecomeasui generislegalinstrument.Underthenewrules,in the case of teleworking, the employee works part or all of the working time at a place separate from the employer's premises.
Wecannoticethatthelegislatorhasbroadenedthecategoryofteleworking to include home office legitimised within the employment contract:inadditiontothepreviouslymainly,regularlyremotework, teleworking also includes the case where the employee spends only part of the working time away from the employer's premises.A teleworker may work part of his/her working time (even regularly) at theemployer'spremises.Inourview,thishaschangedtheessenceof teleworking, which was previously a separate atypical employment relationship category, but this amendment has brought hybrid work withintheatypicalemploymentrelationshipconstructionofteleworking.It should be pointed out that the regulation does not specify a mandatory ratio between work performed on the premises and work performed remotely (at home or elsewhere) in order for the relationshiptobeconsideredtelework,butmerelyprovidesabackgroundrule thatcanbecircumventedbyconsensusoftheparties.Itstipulatesthat, unless otherwise agreed, teleworking shall not involve the employee working at the employer's premises for more than one third of the working days in the reference year.
On the border of the physical and the virtual workplace… This freedom would allow for both predominantly office-based andeveninfrequentremoteworkingwithintheframeworkofatypical employmentrelationshipsthatwereoriginallybasedonteleworking 28 .In our view, however, this would disrupt the stability of the hitherto autonomousatypicallegalinstitution,sinceitwouldalsobringhybrid work within its framework, which is problematic because the legal consequences of teleworking are specifically suited to a situation in whichthereisnoplaceforregularofficework.Inpractice,forexample,itcanalsoleadtotensionsbetweenemployeesiftheemployercan exercise close control, supervision and instruction with different degreesofintensityoveremployeeswhoareworkingintheoffice,even inthesamejob.Amongthemanyotherissues,thebackgroundnorm that, the working schedules of teleworkers are flexible, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, is removed.A flexible working schedule forteleworkingisentirelyappropriateandfollowstheessentialcharacteristicsofteleworking.However,undertheActonAmendments,if the parties fail to agree on this matter, the flexible working schedule doesnotapply.Thiscanleadtoparticularlysharptensionsintheremunerationofextraordinaryworkthatmayariseduringteleworking, evenathome.

Occupational safety and healtha cornerstone of practical implementation
In the light of our analysis so far, it is clear that teleworking and homeofficeemploymentcanprovideanappropriatesolutiontomany of today's challenges, but it also raises a number of new questions that need to be answered.In addition to broadening the definition of teleworking, the legislator has also made it essential to address the labourprotectionissuesthatariseinordertoensuresustainability.
Gábor Mélypataki, Bernadett Solymosi-Szekeres, Laura Kovács-Berényi s.14z21 ing.It is worth highlighting, first of all, that due to the amendment, employees may also work with their own work equipment in the context of teleworking if they have made a separate agreement with the employer.It is important to underline that, under the rules, the work equipmentinquestiondoesnotnecessarilyhavetobeacomputerdevice.Risk assessment is of particular importance in this case, and the employerhasanobligationtoensurethattheworkequipmentissafe andnothazardoustohealth.Afterthat,however,itwillbetheworker'sresponsibilitytoensurethattheworkequipmentismaintainedin goodconditionforfurtheruse 29 .Inotherwords,thelegislatorclearly distinguishesbetweentwocategoriesofteleworking:teleworkingwith the use of computer equipment and teleworking without the use of computerequipment.
KnowledgeofandcompliancewiththebasicOSHruleswillalsobe keyinthecaseofteleworking,i.e.itisimportanttoestablishthatthe employer is responsible for creating safe working conditions that do notposearisktohealth 30 andthatthisisnotaffectedbytheworkers' OSHobligations.Itisalsoimportanttonotethatriskassessmentwill be key to the development of an effective and operational system, as highlightedabove.Thisappliestobothcomputingandnon-computing equipment.An assessment of the condition of the work equipment, including the existence of OHS documentation, declarations of conformity, certificates and operational documentation, and their technical content, can be undertaken with a good understanding of OHS requirements.TheOSHActprovidesthat the employer will be obliged to carry out a qualitative and, if necessary, quantitative assessment of the risks to the health and safety of workers, in particular with regard to the work equipment used, dangerous substances and mixtures, the stresses to which workers are exposed and the design of workplaces.During the risk assessment, the employer identifies the likely hazards (sources of danger, hazardous situations) and the persons at risk, and estimates the degree of exposure according to the nature of the hazard (accident, health hazard).The risk assessment shall include occupational hygiene tests to determine Article2(2)oftheOSHAct.
On the border of the physical and the virtual workplace… s.15z21 the level of exposure in the event of the occurrence of a pathogenic factor regulated by the health protection limit value 31 Withregardtotherisks,itisclearthatrisksarisingfromteleworking are no exception.In this context, the proliferation of wireless, mobile and other innovative technologies and their increasing use in the workplace makes it essential to further analyse the exposure of 32 .Furthermore, we believe that it will be of paramount importance to addressandassessthepsychosocialrisksassociatedwithteleworking.
Aswehavehighlightedinourresearchsofar,akeyissuewillbeto define what exactly is meant by the actual place of work.The relevant provision of the OSH Act defines a workplace as any open or enclosed space where workers are present for the purpose of or in connection with work 33 .Properandcompleteinformationwillbeacrucialfactorbeforethe startofwork,andtheemployermustprovidetheemployeewithwritten information on the rules of the conditions that comply with the healthandsafetyatworkregulations.Onthebasisofthisinformation, the worker should choose the place of work in the light of the above requirements.On17June2022,theDepartmentofOccupationalSafety and Health Management of the Ministry of Technology and Industry published an information note (hereinafter: Guide) to provide guidance on the rules on OSH for teleworking with information technology or computing equipment (hereinafter: computing equipment) in view of the amendment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act on 1 June 2022.On the question of what exactly can be considered a workplace in the light of what has been said so far, the Guide specifies that if teleworking takes place in the home of the employee, this doesnotmeanthattheentirehomewillbeconsideredtheworkplace.According to the Authority's guidelines, at a minimum, the area of approximately2-4m2wheretheworkdesk,workchair,computer,filingcabinet,printer,etc.arelocatedisconsideredtobeaworkplace 34 . 31Article54(2)oftheOSHAct. 32 EUstrategicframeworkonhealthandsafetyatwork2021-2027,Occupationalsafetyandhealthinachangingworldofwork,EuropeanCommission,Brussels,28.6.2021COM(2021)323final,p.2,8. 33 Article87,point5oftheOSHAct.Moving along this path of reflection, the question immediately arises astowhatimpactthiswillhaveonthemanagementofanyaccidents thatmayoccur,andunderwhatcircumstancescananaccidentbeclassified as an accident at work.The Guide deals with the question in a rather generous way when it gives the guidance that the OSH Act considers accidents at work to be accidents at work which occur in the course of or in connection with the performance of work.If the employer classifies the accident as an accident at work, the employer must investigate the circumstances of the accident 35 .This does not covertheassessmentofthework-relatednessorthescopeofaccidents occurring in the home or in the different premises of the worker.On this basis, if a minimum area of 2 to 4 m2 is defined as the place of work in a given case, an accident occurring there is considered to be anaccidentatwork.However,itwouldnotbeconsideredanaccident at work if the worker had an accident outside this predefined work area,forexampleinthebathroom,kitchenorgarden.Inthiscase,since thepremiseswhicharenotoperatedbytheemployer-inthecaseof teleworkingthisincludesotherpremisessetupbytheemployee-are alreadyundertheresponsibilityoftheemployee,asdefinedinArticle 87point3oftheOSHAct.
As we reach this point in our study, it becomes increasingly clear why we see the role of OSH as a cornerstone of the practical implementationandsustainabilityoftelework.Inthiscontext,itisalsonecessary to emphasise the key role of OSH education, which must also be specific.According to the recommendation of Hungarian authorities, priority is given to prevention and to identifying the risk factors associated with working in front of a screen.In addition, we believe that the practice of Cyprus on teleworking is worth mentioning.In theofficialrecommendationofCyprus(hereinafter:Recommendation) regardingtelework,particularemphasisisplacedonthefactthattelemunka során a munkavégzéshez szükséges, egészséget nem veszélyeztető és biztonságosmunkakörülményekszabályairól.2022.06.17,pp.2-3.Seemoreat:http://www.ommf.gov.hu/index.php?akt_menu=172&hir_reszlet=851(10.09.2022).
On the border of the physical and the virtual workplace… s.17z21 working should be voluntary, that the equipment necessary for the employee to work should be provided by the employer and that the employer and the employee should be trained in the use of effective communicationmethods.
Itisalsoimportantthatthepartiesclarifythechannelsofcommunicationthatwillbeusedandtheprocessforhowandwithwhomthe employee will be contacted in the event of a problem, and what the protocolwillbe.Inaddition,inordertoavoidundueinterferencewith the employee's private and family life, the time period during which the employee cannot be contacted should be agreed as well.Furthermore, the Recommendation also underlines that teleworking should notimplyanincreaseinworkinghours,sothatemployeesmayrefuse to work beyond working hours without prior notice 36 .These are just afewideasworthhighlighting,butinourviewtheyillustratethateffective practical implementation of telework is best conceived as part ofacomplexsystemshapedbyanumberoffactors.

Summary
Ourmainobjectiveinthisstudyhasbeentoprovideacomprehensive overview of the relationship between home office and telework, the regulatory environment that defines the conceptual framework, and to highlight some of the key issues and problems related to the demarcationandthelegislativeoutcomes.Wehaveseenthatthepandemic, the emergence of changing forms of work brought about by digitalisation and the new approach to the concept of the workplace inthechangingworldofworkareallnewchallengesforthelegislator.Thesignificantincreaseinthenumberofteleworkersandhomeoffice workers 37 alsobringsanewapproachtohealthandsafetyatwork.In 36 GuideonTeleworkingduringCOVID-19PandemicKnowledgeandresultsfrom Tele-WOSHasaRESTART2016-2020project,belongtotheparticipatingorganization carryingouttheworkthatproducedthem.2021,pp.30-31. 37 According to Eurofund data, the number of people teleworking has increased significantly since the pandemic, with around 40% of workers switching to full-time teleworking,butthisincludescaseswhereitismadecompulsorybythenationalauthorities.SeeformoreonthistheOpinionoftheEuropeanEconomicandSocialCommittee onThe challenges of teleworking: the organisation of working time, work-life balance and the right to decoupling(2021/C220/01)," OfficialJournaloftheEuropeanUnion"9June2021,  Vol.64,p.8.Gábor Mélypataki, Bernadett Solymosi-Szekeres, Laura Kovács-Berényi   s.18z21   this context, well-designed health and safety rules can, among other things, contribute to achieving and maintaining a good work-life balance.Itisimportanttounderlinethattechnologicaldevelopmentandthe socialandeconomicchallengesofthe21stcenturyareconstantlyshaping the legislative environment.In connection with this, in Hungary, withregardtotheamendmentstolabourlaw,workinginthecontext of a home office has not been named as a separate legal relationship in the provisions of the Labour Code, instead the legislator has redefinedtheconceptoftelework,breakingandbroadeningitstraditional conceptualframework.
This hybrid approach goes against the autonomous entity of teleworking as a separate, sui generis atypical employment relationship.Indeed, teleworking is a specific atypical employment relationship with a legal history going back several decades in EU law, based on the concept of flexicurity, i.e. flexibility and security.With this new, broad aspect, it is not possible to maintain teleworking as a separate, distinct atypical employment relationship.Ongoing changes, new practical problems and as yet unforeseen technological advances all point to the need to re-examine telework from both a domestic and an international, EU perspective, so that it can be applied to hybrid circumstances 38 withoutinternalcontradictions.
Inourview,thecorevalueoflabourlawshouldbeaguidingprinciple in shaping regulatory trends; that is, creating security by ensuringadecentlivinganddecentworkingconditions,andensuringflexibility, with sustainability as the basis.Against this background, we see a needtodevelopaconceptualapproachtoteleworkinginordertoensurethatitspotentialisrealisedinpractice.