Performance of remote work does not release the employer from the obligation to record and compensate overtime work, although control over working time may be more difficult.

Consequently, the employer should regulate (e.g. in the form of a remote work policy or labor rules and regulations) the issues related to, among other things, confirmation of presence at work, work start and end times, billing for completed tasks and rules for performance of overtime work. 

It is possible, for example, to obligate employees to keep detailed records of all performed activities (their content should be adapted to the work time system of the employee) and the time they spent on performing them, and send them regularly to their managers for subsequent verification. 

Such records can be kept also for employees employed in a task-based working time system. They will make it possible to correctly manage overtime work, if any.

In any case, the managers should control the working time of their reporting employees on an ongoing basis and, in particular, react if the employee sends emails at non-standard times. 

Find more in the PRO HR October 2020.