The electronic workday tracking system puts what little remains of home office and workplace flexibility at risk if it is used as a tool for control and surveillance, specialists warn.
“I definitely think that if more requirements are imposed on remote work or hybrid work arrangements, such as electronic attendance tracking, we will definitely end up completely abandoning remote work,” warns Estefanía Rueda, an attorney and partner at Littler.
The workday reform added to Article 132 of the Federal Labor Law (LFT) the employer’s obligation to electronically record each employee’s working hours and provide the information if requested by the authorities.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) still has to publish the guidelines that will detail how this obligation will be implemented. Among the questions and pending issues is how the system will be used for remote work.
“Many situations are still pending; this is another issue that is unclear. It is one of the gray areas, and we will have to navigate it without losing that flexibility, while being aware that working means working and not going to the supermarket for three hours and then coming back to see what work you have waiting. That will be a major challenge,” says Carlos Ferran Martínez, managing partner at Ferran Martínez Abogados.
Rueda recalls that Telework Standard 037, in effect since December 2023, created new obligations for employers and began discouraging flexible work arrangements and the transition to hybrid work models.
Electronic Tracking in Home Office: Another Pressure on Flexibility
An electronic tracking system for remote workers would mean an additional obligation and an investment in resources to install monitoring mechanisms on devices.
“In the end, we are going to require employers to make a new expenditure on these systems (…) but regardless, it means making this expenditure and modifying a budget again for the last quarter of the year, which is somewhat complicated from a corporate standpoint,” emphasizes Estefanía Rueda.
In addition to the economic factor, there is “legal and business tension” involved in requesting a tool that provides certainty regarding hours worked and compliance with the reduced workweek, while potentially encouraging more rigid work management, says Carlos Ferran Martínez.
“The electronic tracking system should not, by itself, eliminate the flexibility of remote work. The problem could arise when the company uses it as a mechanism to control physical presence and for surveillance, rather than as a tool to verify working hours,” the specialist says.
Avoiding the temptation to use it as a “time clock” requires addressing how productivity should be measured under this reform: through the number of hours of physical presence or by focusing on results and flexibility.
“It creates concern among (…) workers who are not accustomed to that strict structure, if we want to put it that way, because they are measured by results, for example, in executive or managerial positions,” Rueda says.
Remote Work Opportunities Continue to Decline
Job openings that offer remote work have declined following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and account for only 3% of all positions posted online in Latin America, compared with a peak of 5.4%, according to data from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in its report What Jobs Are Being Created in Latin America?
In Mexico, 50% of organizations do not offer remote work because of concerns about lower productivity and the lack of mechanisms for measuring and monitoring performance, according to a study by the Western Mexico Human Resources Association (ARIOAC).
Electronic Tracking: Control or Flexibility?
The new regulation should seek to avoid having to choose between control and freedom and instead learn to measure work without destroying the autonomy provided by new forms of work, argues Ferran Martínez.
“The great challenge will be not losing the benefits of flexibility that already exist,” he warns.
If the mandatory electronic tracking requirement applies to remote work, it could open the door to workplace flexibility becoming a thing of the past.
“In the end, if this mandatory electronic tracking also begins to apply to remote workers, then we face the risk of starting to move backward again instead of moving forward with our work arrangements,” Rueda says.
The coexistence of the time clock, as a means of providing certainty regarding working hours, and flexibility is possible, believes Carlos Ferran Martínez.
“The problem arises when people end up working less productively in a hybrid or remote-work arrangement because they feel they have excessive freedom over their working hours. In that case, it should not be a problem,” he says.
Source: eleconomista
