Tasks and Responsibilities of an Employer in a Digital Age: How to Comply with the Applicable Requirements for Work Conditions

• Author: Gaabriel Tavits
• Pages: 79-87

79

JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL 27/2018

Gaabriel Tavits

Professor of Social Law

University of Tartu

Tasks and Responsibilities of

an Employer in a Digital Age:

How to Comply with the Applicable Requirements

for Work Conditions

1. Introduction

The general meaning of labour law is intimately tied to the understanding that an employee is a party in a

weaker position in the employment relationship and that the employer has to follow all possible rules that

have been established by labour law so as to protect the employee.

There are several classes of rule that an employer has to honour:

1) specif‌i c rules on occupational health and safety

2) rules connected with the individual employment contract at issue (addressing working and rest

time, annual holiday, night work (along with overtime work etc.), and protection for specif‌i c

categories of employees – (minors, pregnant workers, etc.)

Using new forms of employment and new technologies renders it impossible for the employer to follow

both sets of rules without problematic issues arising. For instances, in cases of ‘online jobs’ (e.g., telework or

platform-based employment), it is not possible for the employer to measure the working time unilaterally.

Furthermore, the employer is interested more in the result. In cases involving shift work handled online, it

is not possible to measure how many hours of work will be done in a shift or know in advance how the work

is going to be done.

It is obvious that the principles of labour law developed in the 19th century do not function adequately

for today’s environment. Although the protection of the employee must remain at the core of labour law,

it is time to rethink the position of the employee in labour relations. One important requirement in this

connection is that the employee takes more responsibility in labour relations. This extends to determina-

tion of the appropriate limitations on working and rest time and to observing the occupational health and

safety rules. The protection of the employee is not only the task of the employer; this responsibility has to

be shifted more toward the employee.

Another important question emerges also, one connected with how to assess the quality of the work

performed by the employee. Until recently, it was possible to verify the quality of work done by employees

rather directly in the workplace, but now, in the era of digitalisation, the term ‘workplace’ does not denote

anything def‌i nite and concrete. Hence, a vital question for the employer inevitably rears its head: how can

such control be performed most e ciently?

This article’s discussion of the attendant issues is divided into four chapters. The f‌i rst chapter (2) exam-

ines the issue of the employment relationship and its legal regulation. The main problem to be solved is

https://doi.org/10.12697/JI.2018.27.08