Important changes in labor law – employee sobriety testing and remote working

The first quarter of 2023 is full of important changes within the labor law. In February, regulations on employee sobriety testing came into force, while in April regulations governing remote work arrangements came into force.

Remote work

Remote work became widespread starting in 2020. Until now, the rules for remote work were not regulated by the Labor Code. On April 7, 2023, an amendment to the Labor Code on remote work comes into force.

The new regulations will bring several important changes:

• The employer will have the ability to issue a remote work order to an employee. In certain cases, the order will be binding.
• The amendment describes the cases in which an employee will be entitled to request a remote work referral from the employer.
• The introduction of remote work at an employer will, in principle, require the development and adoption of remote work regulations.
• The employer will be entitled to control the remote worker at the place of work (i.e., in a significant number of cases, at the employee’s home).
• We described the issues related to remote work in our tutorial article – Remote Work – Employer’s Obligations.

Sobriety checks

In February 2023, however, the regulations regarding the control of an employee’s sobriety in the workplace came into force.

According to the new regulations:

• The employer is authorized to conduct random sobriety tests of employees.
• Controlling employees for sobriety requires the employer to introduce appropriate provisions in the work regulations.
• If an employee does not consent to a breathalyzer test by the employer, then the employer may call in the services, which will test the employee’s blood for the presence of alcohol.
• Sobriety testing can also be conducted against a contractor on a b2b contract.
• The issues concerning employee sobriety testing are described in our publication – Employee Sobriety Testing.

However, this is not the end of the changes that await us in labor law in 2023. More changes are coming into force in just a few weeks.

Each amendment will be described in our expert blog. We invite you to follow our website.