France - (AFP) - European negotiations on remote work will start Tuesday in Brussels, with the aim of drafting directives while the adoption of this practice is "accelerating" due to Covid-19, according to Naila Gleize, President of Eurocadres, the European trade union organization of employees.

The negotiations are chaired by representatives of European employers and representatives of the European Trade Union Confederation, in which Eurocadres participates.

The aim is to update the European agreement issued in 2002 in this regard, to reach in June the formulation of directives that will be attached to the law of the member states within two years, as confirmed by Glaze during a press conference at the headquarters of the Confederation of Trade Unions in Montreuil (Paris region).

“What is important for us is not to lose what we reached in 2002,” Glaze said, referring to the principle of “volunteering” workers, “the obligation to negotiate an agreement before starting remote work,” “the responsibility of employers in the areas of health and security,” and Equipment maintenance, training, monitoring and data protection issue.

"It is also an opportunity to win new rights: a real right to shut down the computer," and the right for workers' representatives to use professional email to "ward off risks" (feelings of isolation, domestic violence), she added.