Wereldcongres van de ISLSSL: paper over huisarbeid en telewerk

door Koen Nevens

1. Van 1 tot 4 september 2009 nam ik deel aan het XIX Wereldcongres van de Internationaal Society of Labour and Social Security Law, dat plaatsvond in Sydney (Australië). De papers die op dit congres werden gepresenteerd, kunnen nu worden gedownload op http://www.labourlawsydney.com/ReportsandPapers.htm

U vindt er ook mijn paper, getiteld "Taking distance from home work: conceptualising and regulating telework " terug. Zie hier de inleiding ervan:

"In this paper I argue that at the conceptual level, teleworkers can more easily be integrated into the (continental) concept of employee than ‘traditional’ home workers. To that end I first illustrate how the adoption of the notion of subordination as definitional element of the contract of employment, created an incongruence between the concept of employee – or at an earlier stage in history – between that of labourer (ouvrier) and the notion of home worker (§3). Both in Belgium and France this development must be situated at the end of the nineteenth century and explains why – in the course of the twentieth century – both the Belgian and French legislator took specific measures with regard to home work. However, this incongruence is far from apparent with regard to teleworkers, a category of workers often associated with home workers, but who may be subjected to the ubiquitous control of their employer by means of ICTs (§4). I thus go against the view that teleworkers are more likely to be considered as self-employed persons, given the autonomy they are said to enjoy. Yet, I also argue that while at the conceptual level, teleworkers can be more easily integrated into the traditional (continental) notion of employee, this does not dissipate the need, at a regulatory level, to take into account the particularities of some or all forms of telework. I illustrate this with respect to the regulation of working time (§5).

However, to start with I will address some preliminary issues concerning the legal and societal context in which telework has developed, the possible proliferation of self-employment that telework might entail and the seemingly difficult interrelation of that concept with the notion of home work (§2). The clarifications in this preliminary chapter will allow a better understanding of the conceptual and regulatory problems telework engenders."