Advantages and disadvantages of teleworking in South America in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic in South America brought severe impacts in sectors such as health, economy, society, family, and —particularly noticeable— in the workplace, which made teleworking one of the tools to bridge gaps in this dimension. Within this setting, the present research was aimed at identifying the advantages and disadvantages in the implementation of teleworking across in South American countries, considering the associated legal, technological, and social aspects of this process. To do this, a methodology based on documentary analysis with an exploratory, descriptive, and non-experimental scope was adopted. Legislative sources that regulate teleworking in South America and national and international indexed scientific articles that address the subject of study were examined, deploying the bibliographic review technique in scientific databases. In the face of the crisis caused by coronavirus, teleworking became one of the immediate alternatives to maintain work activities in many economic sectors, even when each country tackled different challenges or limitations for its proper implementation due to their legal regime. In South America, teleworking was the most viable tool for public and private services provision, whose legal regulation showed a crucial development. This kind of labor arrangement is still strengthening its implementation due to the advancement of information and communication technologies.