Honduras to Regulate Remote Working with a New Law

The government in Honduras is reportedly preparing a legislative bill designed to regulate remote working practices in the country.

The Central American country’s Labor Minister, Carlos Madero, told local Spanish daily La Pensa that the bill would soon be tabled in the Congress.

The news comes barely months after Costa Rica signed into law a similar bill aimed at supporting work-from-home culture in its expanding services industry.

Like Costa Rica, Honduras is also hopeful of creating more employment with the introduction of the law. Remote workers often work from home with the help of personal computers and faster internet connections.

The Honduran government is reportedly planning to offer incentives to companies that allow its employees to work from home. And even the government institutions will be told to adopt the work-from-home culture.

“Customer services industry will be the biggest beneficiary of this proposed law,” Tomás Zambrano, Secretary of the country’s National Congress, told local media.

Although plagued by drug-related gang violence, Honduras is a favorite country for Nearshore services providers. San Pedro Sula is home to dozens of foreign BPO firms, including Alorica, Convergys, Allied Global and KM2 Solutions.

Remote-working has been on the rise in the developed world, particularly in the United States. Around one-third of Americans work from home, with the number of remote workers increasing 115% in the past decade.

According to a study by the International Center to Promote Remote Work (CIDTT by its Spanish acronym), every remote worker helps his employer save at least US$517 annually.

Telecommuting also reduces air pollution in cities, as the number of vehicles on urban roads decline.

As a result, a large metropolitan city may save up to 48 million liters of fuel over a period of one year, equivalent to more than 28,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the report added.