I have already written a lot about the Labor Package that the Government presented to us last summer, which it gave the curious title of Work XXI. About how this package is a huge step backwards and goes exactly against what work should be like in this century: incorporating innovation to make work more rewarding and part of a better family and community life. But this is not just where the Government is failing to bring work into the 21st century.
Our century will be marked by the greater frequency and intensity of extreme phenomena – like the ones we are experiencing at the beginning of the year. To be prepared, the country must invest in planning, prevention and readiness in many areas… and also at work: foresee exceptional situations in the Labor Code so that workers and employers know immediately what they can count on in extreme situations and thus avoid doubts, abuses and unnecessary risks in such difficult times.
Of course, it is not possible to legislate to predict all cases, but there are situations that we can take precautions for, both to prevent risks and to respond to extreme episodes.
To prevent risks, and knowing that we will have more and more days of intense heat, intense rain, intense winds, where those who work outside are subject to greater dangers, our Labor Code must start to provide for a license so that, on days of extreme weather warnings, outdoor workers do not have to risk their safety and health – in fact, similar to what has already been approved in Spain. Or, it should also be clear that, for days with extreme weather warnings, companies must have contingency plans in place that minimize travel, favoring teleworking, reducing activity or even laying off workers.
But also to respond to extreme phenomena we must have tools in the Labor Code. A justification for absence is already provided for when there is an “impossibility of providing work due to a fact not attributable to the worker”, which has been used in the case of transport failures, closed roads or lack of energy or communications. But life after an extreme phenomenon is not just a closed road. In recent weeks, thousands of people in areas affected by the storm train have dedicated themselves to normalizing their lives and those of their neighbors, recovering homes, assessing damage, filling out forms, maintaining aid circuits, calculating the future of companies and associations, sharing generators.
Many of these people, understandably, missed many days of work – and many still don’t know with what consequences: whether vacation days will be deducted, whether unjustified absences will accumulate, whether they will be laid off later. The uncertainty of what will happen at work cannot be added to the disruption of rebuilding one’s life in a calamity and therefore the Labor Code must be much more explicit, providing, for example, for the justification of absences in the event of a declaration of a public calamity.
The Labor Code we need in this century is not the one the Government wants to impose on us but one for the future, which protects us and prepares us to live well in this century.
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