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European social partners of the insurance sector have signed a joint declaration on Telework.

It is based on the European social partner framework agreement of 2002 and in addition takes into consideration working conditions in today’s insurance sector.

It covers in-house employees who work at distance on a regular basis as well as mobile sales workers and loss adjustors in countries without specific legislation or collective agreements for the latter. It states that Telework (working from home, working from a distance) can only be a voluntary measure. It demands that conditions for Telework must always be agreed between social partners at company level. The responsibility for providing adequate means and equipment for the teleworker lies with the company. Among other things, the statement also states out that teleworkers must have the same collective rights, rights to training and rights to meet with his/her trade union representatives.The declaration offers a base line to affiliates from both sides that they can use when negotiating similar agreements in their collective agreements at national and company level. Telework has become more and more important for insurance employees in recent years. Trade unions from all over Europe worked together under the umbrella of UNI Europa Finance to negotiate this European answer to the challenge. From the trade union side, a stronger wording on the respect for working hours would have been preferred but the declaration is still a very good step in the right direction. European social partners in the insurance sectors have committed themselves to further work on the issue of Telework and the new joint declaration will serve as a basis. The joint declaration has been signed at the Insurance sectoral social dialogue plenary meeting on 10 February 2015.