Rights to WFH in portugal / abroad ?...

molab

I am in full-time employment as a permanent employee, working from home (as a lot of us are who've been fortunate enough not to be furloughed). 
Since the 'bubble' rules have been introduced & travel abroad from July...i  am hoping i can go to portugal where my parents live and work remotely, from there.
am i within my rights to do this? does my employer have any kind of power over this? 
want to know if my employer would have any say in this and legal control to say no? if i decide to go ahead and tell them if i do it...or chance it and not say anything and just do it.

PS. there are colleagues of mine already working remotely abroad in their home countries (they live in london but flew back to Germany for e.g. to stay with their families pre lock down when all this started in march).

bradders1983

I mean you could chance it, but if someone tries to ring you on your mobile wont it have a foreign dialling tone? Forget how it works.

poppy12345

Your employer could ask you to return to work at anytime. What would you do if this happened and you decided not to tell them? You would also need to self issolate for 14 day when you return home. My opinion is you need to speak to your employer.

bradders1983

Also worth pointing out that the bubble "rules" are for England, not Portugal. I have no idea what the Portuguese "rules" are, if you can call them that, they may be even more weak to enforce than the English ones.

Hasbeen

molab said:

I am in full-time employment as a permanent employee, working from home (as a lot of us are who've been fortunate enough not to be furloughed). 
Since the 'bubble' rules have been introduced & travel abroad from July...i  am hoping i can go to portugal where my parents live and work remotely, from there.
am i within my rights to do this? does my employer have any kind of power over this? 
want to know if my employer would have any say in this and legal control to say no? if i decide to go ahead and tell them if i do it...or chance it and not say anything and just do it.

PS. there are colleagues of mine already working remotely abroad in their home countries (they live in london but flew back to Germany for e.g. to stay with their families pre lock down when all this started in march).

Should be no problem, if employer called you to turn up next day would that be possible?

Depending on any quarantine restrictions etc?

Galloglass

Your specific question was about "rights". I assume you mean statutory rather than contractual. However the both are interlinked. Have a read of this and then check your contract. If your contract is not specific, then you might want to inform your employer of your plans as there would be an implied "work from home" to mean your normal domicile.

https://worksmart.org.uk/work-rights/pay-and-contracts/location/how-my-place-work-defined-and-why-does-it-matter

The next question would be, if you failed to inform, would that mean a breach of your contract? Depends but as others have indicated, you might want to step carefully.

Gonna-be-debt-free

Would there be a reason you couldn't just ask them?  If you already have colleagues working from home in other countries, it sounds like it wouldn't be an issue.  People who work for me are scattered across the globe at the moment as they wanted to hunker-down with family - they checked in with me first and it wasn't a problem. However if they had just gone without asking it would have made me trust them less over the longer term.  It's about having that trust relationship.

Grumpy_chap

I have wondered much the same. 

If you are working from home, and actually worked from, in your case, Portugal, does it make any difference and does anyone need to know where you are so long as the work gets done? 

In many workplaces, if you asked, they would say "no" simply because they can't think.  That was the case for many workplaces if you asked to work from home up until the end of March.  Now, I wonder, whether "the office" will become largely redundant.

There would be an issue if you were needed to attend the office or workplace at short notice as, currently, you'd be stuck with 14-day quarantine minimum.

I can also see an issue if you wanted to be based from somewhere with a vastly different time-zone, say Singapore, as that would either mean you need to work effectively a night shift, or you would work what customers see as 'weird' hours and you would not be available to serve customers or interface with colleagues in a regular fashion.

pleasedelete

We have new rules that company IT equipment cannot be taken abroad without permission- mobiles and laptops. Interesting time to bring it in 

Thrugelmir

You are employed to do a job. Your rights are limited to those as set out in employment law. Furlough could end at any time or you maybe required to attend something in the office. Which wouldn't be practical nor possible with a 14 day isolation period. Suggest you discuss the matter with your employer rather than ask a random bunch of strangers on an internet forum. 

Grumpy_chap

The OP is working from home - furlough is not applicable.

Though I note the OP refers to the new "bubble" rules and "travel abroad from July".  I must have missed the rule about travel - I thought FCO advice remained against all travel and that quarantine was in force with no end date set.  What are the travel rules please?