Although the idea is just in its maturation stage, the Executive Branch surprised by raising in Geneva (Switzerland) the need to regulate Internet work, an activity that is increasing in the world and Uruguay does not escape this reality.
In the country it is estimated that there are more than 100 thousand people who telework, a modality that grew especially to be assumed by the new generations who have another vision regarding the positions offered by the market and how to stay in them.
The Undersecretary of Labour, Nelson Loustaunau, said this week before the International Labour Organization (ILO), that Uruguay proposes that there be an "international regulation" of work on the Internet because it will not be enough with the effort that each country can do individually. That is why the proposal was made in a global forum where, in addition to governments, companies and workers are represented.
The informality of the sector, the payment of taxes and the social security system are at the basis of the regulation.
"These phenomena (internet jobs) seem to have been designed as a great escape portal to formalization. At least to formalization as we conceive it today," he said at the ILO.
"The need to design new formalization strategies is inexorable," said the Undersecretary of Labor, "because if this is not done in the short term, economies will begin to be compromised, with the risk of increasing poverty and especially for the future of social security. According to ILO data, there is currently a deficit of more than 240 million decent jobs and that number will rise to 300 million in the next 10 years.
"The image of the internet as an abstract cloud over which no control can be exercised must be abandoned. The cyberspace where a significant number of workers and employers currently work must somehow be integrated into the tangible world and its borderless products and workers must become the object of regulation," said Loustaunau.
For the hierarch, the regulation will benefit workers and especially companies "that will have clear conditions of competition".
Labor Minister Ernesto Murro told El Observador that "work is just beginning" on regulating teleworking.
The government's idea was taken by the private sector as positive, although it was also warned that regulations should not slow down the development of this activity. It is noted that both companies and employees will benefit. Companies will benefit because the rules of the game will be established and employees will benefit because they will be assured of mechanisms that will allow them to access social security at the end of their working life.
The private view
Alvaro Lamé, director of the telecommunications provider Netgate, said that the possibility of regulating telework "locally" will not only be easier in relation to those who work abroad, but will improve the conditions and competitiveness of companies so that, depending on the advantages offered, employees opt for one company or another.
He said that in the software industry today they have problems because their employees decide to leave their jobs to "work remotely", where they have other benefits such as flexible hours.
For those who work online for destinations outside the border, "today there is no control and it is very difficult to regulate," he said. That is why the government's intention is to propose regulation at the international level, something that Europe is also trying to do.
Lamé, who is running for the presidency of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (CUTI), told El Observador that any regulation "must avoid a traditional view of the labor market.
Marcelo Montado, president of the Chamber of Digital Economy, does not imagine "how an efficient system of regulation of internet work will be found, that does not impose controls that in the end slow down development". "If regulation implies restrictions by control, then it will go against what the world is doing," he warned.
One of the advantages of the regulation was to ensure that these workers have a retirement plan.
The privates see that if the culture of that kind of freelance staffing doesn't change, they will have a problem when it comes time to retire.
Montado told El Observador that the issue is of concern and the Chamber, along with the School of Economics, is preparing a seminar for July on the transformations in labor relations and new labor ties in the digital economy.
Federico Muttoni, director of the consulting firm Advice, told El Observador that in the event that a regulation is attempted, it will have to be "careful" not to affect those who today work for other destinations. "The key is to be competitive, if you stop being competitive, the jobs will migrate," he said. Muttoni considered that the tendency is to continue to increase the number of those who work via the Internet so, he warned, any decision may have as a response a "mirror measure" of markets where Uruguayans are suppliers.
Source: Portal El observador.
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