International countries and telework

International governments support telework

Many other governments outside of North America are very active in understanding and promoting telework & telecommuting. Here are some examples. Contact us if you know of others.

Austria

Vienna telework case study

Australia

Australia aims to double telework levels to 12% of all employees

Australian Telework Online Resource Centre provides businesses and employees with information and resources to help achieve a more flexible working environment.

Australia: $300 million broadband strategy / National Teleworking Taskforce will advise Government on options and impediments to the development of teleworking opportunities for business and employees

European Commission

GSMA Unveil European Manifesto Says teleworking can reduce carbon emissions by 22.1 MtCO2e a year

European Parliament: Backs strong measures aimed at getting the motor industry to clean up its act. One of its approaches is to move work to people, rather than people to work" ... by making greater use of advanced communications.

European Commissioner Martin Bangemann: Read about Europe's outlook of weaving telework into Europe's economic and social policy fabric.

Germany

Telehaus Wetter -- rural region near Hesse, Germany

Greece

Telework in Greece: potential benefits and problems (MSword). Written and provided by the National Institute of Labour (EIE)

Ireland

See this website

Italy

Municipality of Rome Case study examines telework in Rome, Italy

City of Napoli: Guidelines for telework in Cities

Hungary

With only 5% working from home, telecommuting in Hungary far below EU average

Hungarian Labor ministry to promote telecommuting; hopes to double from the current 4-5 percent by 2013

Hungarian Employment Minister, Peter Kiss, plans to create 300,000-400,000 new jobs over the next four years, including part-time employment, teleworking and jobs that can be done at home

Japan

With new 1GB per second broadband, Japan's Telecommunications Council aims to further promote telework, teleconferencing and telemedecine. Details here 

Japanese government has just started offering tax breaks to companies who want to start teleworking schemes.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to doubling number of telecommuters from 6.74 million to 13 million by 2010.  Offers tax breaks to do so See here

Japan wants 20% of the nation's work force "telecommute" from home by 2010 cutting down on the stress and family disruption caused by office life.

Japanese gov't officials to try telework for national government Japan has decided to introduce teleworking for national public servants as early as fiscal 2005 that starts next April, and begin testing this fiscal year

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Guidelines in March for the proper introduction and implementation of teleworking

Korea

2011 Korean gov’t looks to telework to boost flexibility in workplace Story here

Korean Government 2009: Korea plans to expand the rate of telecommuting in the public sector from 2.4% this year to 20% by 2013, and 30% by 2020.

Malaysia

Telekom Malaysia Bhd upbeat about the increasing awareness on the benefits of teleworking among Malaysians

Malta

More civil servants to work from home in Malta

New Zealand

New Zealand government approves 12-month telework project aimed at reducing commuting woes votes for teleworking project "great initiative and a sign of things to come"

New Zealand Government, 2001: Urges energy savings of $900M a year including reducing car trips with telework

City of Auckland Regional Council suggests telework can eliminate 4.7% of peak hour commuting involving single-occupancy cars, cut commuting time by 5.6% and reduce peak hour vehicle mileage by 5.7%.

Poland

The polish parliament introduced into the labor code. See new regulation of telework

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's IT Ministry to help Saudi women telecommute in male-free environments. See story here  Also, see this article

Singapore

Singapore Government hopes more firms will adopt telework. See story here (MS Word)

Slovakia

Amendment to the Slovak Labour Code introduces telework, (work performed by an employee at home or in another place agreed with the employer while using information technology). See story here

Sweden

Swedish Federal Ministers of Trade, Labour & Equality Affairs: Use telework to enable them to combine family life and a career in politics. Check out their interesting stories

Swedish Minister for Equality Affairs. Ulrica Messing '98: Teleworks herself, presents a political and personal business case for telework.

Thailand

Thailand government launches telework program

United Kingdom

Wales, UK (2006): Welsh government to get people out of their cars and encourage them to work from home when it launches a 25-year transport plan

UK firm fined over inflexible working practices: British court awards employee who wasn't granted telework and flexible hours receives thousand of pounds in compensation

As British local councils embrace teleworking, is the experiment working for the employees?

Michael Ahern, Irish Minister for Trade and Commerce Nov 2002 " ... e-work is now firmly part of the broader e-business agenda. It harnesses the potential offered by advances in information and communications technologies. The growing interest by both employers and employees in family friendly work arrangements will also act as a driver to the uptake of e-work into the future. E-work is a concept that will both enhance our competitiveness and, just as importantly, help many individuals to organise their working lives in a manner which provides greater flexibility and job satisfaction."

Prime Minister Tony Blair: Is an enthusiastic supporter of telework.  See his thoughts announcing Europe's Telework 2000 event.

Minister for Small Business and E-Commerce, Patricia Hewitt, backs telework "...teleworking is undoubtedly one of the big changes that is going to come in the new century".

Cambridge MP Anne Campbell: Is able to promote and practice telework with a server in the constituency office which makes all of her files accessible in the House of Commons and in her home.

MP Andrew Miller: As keynote speaker at the Telework '98 conference in Portugal, he indicated his strong backing of telework, largely for its economic and regional development benefits.