The conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic have laid the employers under a necessity in almost all economically developed countries of the world to apply various methods of protecting the health of employees from virus infection, which have included measures for labour protection (using personal protection, sanitary processing of environment), as well as new mechanisms of regulation of labour time.
The organization of the working process with a modified start time (entrances to work in a staggered order), rotation and shift work to reduce the joint presence of employees, minimal presence in common places, meetings between colleagues are only in case of urgency, and, finally, "smart work" means flexible forms of work, including distant (remote) work of employees at home, have become most popular mechanisms [1]. The pandemic has possibly caused an unprecedented level of interest in working at home and other forms of flexible labour and has provoked discussions about the appropriateness of using such type of work organization in future and reducing the proportion of people working in regular jobs.
At the same time, it was the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent change of labour time of a significant number of employees who were assigned to the so-called "distant employment" or "distant working" that revealed a very painful issue related to protecting a free time of the employee and his/her private life.
It must be admitted that the international labour organization, reacted to the current situation very fast, has formulated the main requirements for social policy in the conditions of the pandemic, including four core priorities for the resistance of COVID-19 based on international labour standards: 1) stimulating the economy and employment (fiscal and monetary policy, supporting the individual sectors); 2) supporting the enterprises, working places and incomes; 3) protecting workers in the workplace; 4) using social dialogue to find solutions and other measures[2]. Measures taken by employers to protect employees in the working places have become a way of policy implementation of International Labour Organization (ILO).