Ulugbek Abdurakhmanov conducted research on teleworking during his two-months guest research stay (secondment) at Lund University in the frame of the Central Asian Law project. During his research stay, Ulugbek collected rich survey data on teleworking in Uzbekistan. Based on his analysis of this rich survey data, Ulugbek produced a series of blog posts on the concept of teleworking and its relevance and usage in the context of Uzbekistan. In this last part of the blog post, Ulugbek talks about the early COVID-19 situation in Uzbekistan and its connection to the development of the teleworking in the country. This blog post also provides conclusions of the series and highlights the importance of further research in this area.
PART III
3. COVID-19 AND PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION TOWARDS TELEWORKING IN UZBEKISTAN
by Ulugbek Abdurakhmanov
ulugbek.abdurakhmanow@gmail.com
Covid-19 related situation and adopted measures in the early pandemic times
In the high time of maintaining social distancing during COVID-19, many countries have imposed various degrees of work from home policies to minimize virus contraction amongst colleagues. In the USA, 34.1% of around 8,000 survey participants of the study by Brynjolfsson et al. (2020) have switched to home office, and 37% of American jobs, according to Dingel and Neiman (2020) can be conducted at home (e.g. finance, corporate management, professional and scientific services). However, Dingel and Neiman (2020) pointed out that jobs like agriculture, hospitality and retail are unlikely to be completed at home. In fact, Baker (2020) found that 75% American workers (usually in healthcare, manufacturing, retail and food catering) cannot work at home, while only 25% (usually in technology, computer, management, administration, finance and engineering) can do so. Companies which were hit hard by the isolation or failed to adapt to work from home arrangement were forced to shut down, lay-off or put employees on furlough. Brynjolfsson et al. (2020) estimated that 16 m Americans were hence out of work; worse still, Kahn et al. (2020) concluded that job vacancies have contracted in all sectors except nursing and food-selling retail. In China, Zhang et al. (2020) observed a slightly higher rate of work from home – 38% have worked from home. That said, 25% also ceased working. This brought huge physiological and mental impact on people in both countries. Unlike the statutory isolation imposed by the Chinese Government, Zhong (2020) noted that the neighbouring country Japan only set up a Telework Comprehensive Portal Site which offered citizens information and a discussion platform that work from home is purely voluntary. Compared to the USA, China and Japan, much stricter policies have been in place in Belgium. According to de Baker (2020), the Belgium Ministerial decree on March 18, 2020, stipulated that all non-essential jobs (i.e. jobs other than ministers, hospitals, elderly homes, universities, media, police and military forces, courts and tribunals, legal professions and food sellers) shall either switch to home office or maintain 1.5 m distancing between staff members. Violators were forced to shut down. Different extent of isolation polices (which ultimately led to the emergent adaptation of work from home in companies) may be due to various factors. Dingel and Neiman (2020) found a positive correlation between a country’s income level and the number of jobs that can be completed at home. While Mexico and Turkey have less than 25% work from home -able job share, Sweden and the UK have more than 40%. In short, the wealthier a country, the more likely work from home can take place in it.
In March 2020, the first quarantine due to the COVID-19 virus was announced in the Republic of Uzbekistan.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 5969 dated March 19, 2020, “On priority measures to mitigate the negative impact of coronavirus pandemic and global crisis on the economic sectors” and the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 176 dated March 23, 2020, “On additional measures against the spread of coronavirus infection” have been adopted.
In accordance with the Decree No. 5969, a Republican Anti-Crisis Commission was established, the main tasks of which include rapid response to any problems in connection with the pandemic. The decree also stipulates the development of additional measures to ensure smooth operation of industries and economic sectors in the course of fighting the spread of coronavirus infection and other global risks.
Starting from March 23, 2020, for the period of quarantine, both public and private organizations faced an urgent need to digitize their activities: educational activities in universities, schools, and kindergartens were moved to the virtual space, in order to ensure a safe work environment and limit the spread of COVID-19 among workers, government and companies have directed their workers to work from home, some employees were entitled to get annual leave, as prescribed by law.
Many, employers and employees alike, had limited experience with teleworking on such a large scale before the outbreak. Employers had been comfortable following the standards of office-based work and workers were comfortable with the dichotomy of work and home life. Suddenly companies were faced with the very real possibility of losing revenue and jobs. Combined with the fear and uncertainty of the virus, this disruption was huge, stressful, and painful. Teleworking was looked on as a potential solution to relieve the pain.
In this regard, many developed countries like the USA, UK, and EU countries have coherent development of teleworking, established legal basis, and systematically publish studies and guidelines for its successful implementation.
For instance, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 was signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 9, 2010, which is a key factor in the ability to achieve greater flexibility in managing the telework, this is much more elaborate. The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 requires that the head of each executive agency establish and implement a policy under which employees shall be authorized to telework, and for other purposes. In this Act, there are basic definitions, executive agencies telework requirement, training and monitoring, policy and support, telework managing officer, reporting and others, but there is also a part about the telework research. It is said that the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall research the utilization of telework by public and private sector entities, review the outcomes associated with an increase in telework, including the effects of telework on energy consumption, job creation and availability, urban transportation patterns, and the ability to anticipate the dispersal of work during periods of emergency. The director should also make any studies or reviews performed under this subsection available to the public (Vrchota et.al., 2019).
Unfortunately, in Uzbekistan, there still neither policy/regulations at the government level regarding teleworking nor agreement between the social partners on teleworking at the legislative level exist by this time. In addition, there is no statistical data on how many employees were teleworking pre- and during the pandemic.
In connection with the massive pattern of Covid-19 and to anticipate the spread of the virus, the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations of the Republic of Uzbekistan has approved a temporary procedure for the transfer of workers to remote work or flexible working hours. It should be noted that this procedure operated exclusively during the period of quarantine measures associated with the pandemic. According to it, employers could transfer employees with their consent to teleworking or flexible working hours. The transfer has been made out by order of the employer on the basis of changes made to the employment contract. The signing by the employee of an additional agreement to the employment contract is considered his consent to such changes. Unfortunately, further attempts to develop teleworking programs have not been taken, on the contrary adoption of a temporary act was evaluated by a society that teleworking can be experienced only during quarantine alone.
Due to the lack of preparedness to the remote working model and prolongation of the quarantine, some employers could not manage to effectively introduce teleworking programs. As a consequence, the study found that 85 percent of small businesses were forced to close in March 2020. The self-employed were especially severely hit, with their income falling by 67 percent, according to the World Bank survey conducted in 2020. The same survey found that 1.3 percent of the population – equivalent to around 448,000 people – have sunk into poverty as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Some employees had to get annual paid leave, which usually lasts from 20 to 30 calendar days, after ending of which they had to unwillingly take unpaid leave until the lockdown was over. Some even had to terminate their employment contract in response to an unofficial demand by the employers. In accordance with the information of the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, the unemployment rate increased from 9,0 % in 2019 to 11,1 % in 2020. However, this is only official data, which may vary from real figures. Unfortunately, there is no relevant statistic related to the number of employees transferred to teleworking during quarantine countrywide.
Applied Methodology
The study followed a quantitative method of gathering data which is done through an online survey questionnaire using Google form which lasted from April to May, 2021. The questionnaire was developed in both Uzbek and Russian languages for employees to gather free opinions about telework.
Survey questionnaires supplemented with a brief cover letter explaining the purpose and importance of the research.
In order to have wide coverage of the employees from all regions, survey questionnaires were sent to the ministries, educational institutions, other public agencies, and private sector (in total-16).
A total of 20,162 employees participated in the survey. They all had a relatively good or poor teleworking experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the survey show that majority of the respondents preferred teleworking indicating its advantages they can benefit from.
4. CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES
Uzbekistan has been facing various problems, such as overcrowded cities and uncontrollable environmental problems due to the concentration of industries and business activities in metropolitan areas. In particular, the problems such as high land price, heavy traffic jams, and long commuting time in Tashkent and its vicinity are serious and at the same time a lack of rural infrastructure’s development appears to be a never-ending problem. Therefore, in order to remain competitive and flexible in the labour market in the future and find a relevant solution to the arising problems, in our view, it is timely to think about gradual transformation to the alternative work arrangements.
However, it is critically important to examine the position of managers, as we know from the literature that most of them take the opposite stand. Subsequent research should also investigate complex issues related to the features and consequences of introducing teleworking such as legal basis, types of remote working, gender issues, phycological aspects, managerial attitudes, work-family conflicts, social and cultural aspects, employment of people with disabilities, environmental changes and infrastructural changes, urban planning, use of ICT and Internet, etc.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to give many thanks to Mr. Rustamjon Urinboyev, Associate Professor at the Department of the Sociology of Law of the Lund University of Sweden for supporting many sources of information and feedbacks on the previous version of the paper and sincere appreciation to the Head of the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan Mr. Evgeniy Kolenko for support to conduct this research. I am also thankful for the encouragement and guidelines from Mr. Berdymyrad Ovezmyradov and Mr. Tolibjon Mustafoyev and to my family for continuous moral support.
Funding
This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) Programme under the grant agreement No 870647 (project acronym: Central Asian Law). The information and views set out in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
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Ulugbek Aloev
Excellent!!! Very good analyse.