Working from home: provisional interpretation of the State Labour and Social Services Inspectorate of Tirana Branch

For more than 12 months, the whole world has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, but this shock is felt more in the organization and functioning of work in companies that have a large share in the high number of employees.

For the observance of legal restrictions and keeping distance, from the situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic in Albania, there are numerous Normative Acts of the Council of Ministers, converted into Law by the Albanian Parliament, orders and Protocols of the Ministry of Health which are still in force. All this measure of binding acts has put Albanian employers in difficulty to guarantee on the one hand the continuation of work and on the other hand to implement the mandatory norms for protection from the spread of Covid - 19.

Recently, the State Labour and Social Services Inspectorate, Tirana Branch, has issued a final inspection decision where gives a task to an Employer (as a result of Covid - 19, this Employer respects the distances and non-concentration of many people, organizes the work working two weeks from home and two weeks at work) to amends the individual Employment Contracts in force because that these new individual contracts for work at home should be concluded according to Article 15 of the Labor Code.

As a result of this amendment, according to Inspectorate, the Employer must pay all expenses in respect to the provision of Article 126 of the Labor Code.

In our opinion, these decisions, which have no logical connection with the current pandemic context and also with the national and international laws and legal acts in force, interfere with the contractual autonomy of the parties and are a liability and additional cost for companies that have a relatively high number of employees and should be prohibited.

This Decision of the SLSSI has been appealed by us to the Appeals Commission of the State Labour and Social Services Inspectorate and further, in case this Decision is left in force, it will become the subject of a trial in the competent Court.