The exemptions provided during Covid-19 which facilitated this expired on March 31st smart working. The last ones still in force were those for so-called fragile subjects and for parents of children under 14. Since April, those which had allowed these categories to request smart working through the simplified procedure.
How Smart Working
The data is growing. In 2023, there were more than 3.5 million remote workers in Italy, the estimate for 2024 is 3.65 million smart workers. It says itSmart Working Observatory of the School of Management of the Polytechnic of Milan. It is above all large companies that have such initiatives within them, over 96%. Smart working is also present in 56% of SMEs.
Consequences
It has been calculated that 2 days a week of remote working avoids the emission of 480kg of CO2 per person per year. In fact, travel is eliminated. 14% of those who work remotely have moved house or have decided to do so by moving outside city centres. On the other hand, those who do smart working have more opportunities to work beyond limits.
How to ask for smart working
In the private sector, to have smart working you will need to have a individual agreement with the company: this agreement can be previous (given that the rule was valid before Covid according to article 19 of law no. 81/2017) or newly stipulated. It applies to all categories of workers. Smart working requests with a simplified method will no longer be possible, without individual agreement.
How to make an agreement
The agreement must be written and must indicate the work performed outside the company premises. The tools used by the worker must be specified. “The worker's rest times must be regulated as well as the technical and organizational measures necessary to ensure the worker's disconnection from the technological work equipment”.
There are priorities by categories
The law says that priority is given to workers with children up to twelve years of age and workers with disability in a situation of proven gravity. For children there are no age limits in the case of disabled children. Caregivers and workers aged 65 and over also have priority. Those who do not guarantee priorities risk not being able to request gender equality certification and not having contribution bonuses or accessing national tenders. Having priority does not mean that there necessarily has to be smart working, the company can always decide not to allow smart working.
Are the agreements made during Covid valid?
Agreements made during the pandemic can be for a fixed or indefinite period. In the latter there may be variations, for example, reports Il Sole 24ore, on the distribution of days to be alternated in person and remotely. No communications to the Ministry of Labor are needed. Fixed-term agreements, if renewed, must instead be communicated.
Public administration
In the public administration, simplified smart working for the vulnerable had already ended at the end of 2023. The possibility for public employees to work from home depends on individual agreements according to the directive of the Ministry for Public Administration signed on 29 December 2023.
«With particular regard to the so-called “fragile” workers, the now overcome pandemic contingency, as well as the consolidated collective contractual discipline and the mastery, by the administrations, of the agile working tool as a driving force of flexibility oriented towards productivity and needs of workers, has led to the belief that the need to further extend the legal deadlines that established the compulsory nature of agile working has been overcome. Attention to employees most exposed to health risk situations, however, does not cease: the directive highlights the need to guarantee workers who document “serious, urgent and not otherwise reconcilable health, personal and family situations” the possibility of carrying out the work in an agile way, “also derogating from the criterion of the prevalence of carrying out the work in person”. Workers who demonstrate “serious, urgent and not otherwise reconcilable health, personal and family situations” will be able to carry out the activity in agile mode subject to agreement with the responsible managers”.
What psychologists say
«The topic of smartworking must not be dismissed as an emergency issue, but should be part of an overall reorganization in which the needs of the worker and the employer are taken into account. Let's say that the optimum is a mixed form, in presence and remote » he told theAdnKronos David Lazzari, president of the National Council of the Order of Psychologists.
«Maintaining a certain level of presence within working contexts is important. But there is no clear answer to the question “is smartworking better or everyone in the office?”. It must be taken into account that today remote working must be an option offered to the worker. You can perhaps think about half the days in attendance and the other half at home. We need flexibility for the psychological needs of the worker, but at the same time also respecting the companies' choices.”
Source: Vanity Fair
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