In the text of the new Prime Ministerial Decree of the Government on the subject of Smart Working, it is strongly recommended that anyone with organizational and technological skills such as to ensure the highest possible percentages of agile work, to adopt smart working while still guaranteeing access, quality and the effectiveness of services to citizens and businesses. The adoption of smart working is governed by the simplified procedures launched by the italian Government last February.
Smart Working will be the way of working of the future in terms of people, workspaces, applied technology. It is the same italian government that asks for its incentive every time it issues a DPCM with new rules to contain the spread of the epidemic from Covid and companies and businesses, having discovered the advantages offered by agile work, one can bet they will always ask to plus adoption as has already happened for Unicredit or ReteLit or +GF+.
How work changes in Italy due to the coronavirus. Smart working in the private sector
Even if it is only a recommendation, the references to the Law that established and regulated Smart Working in Italy contained in the DPCM of October are explicit. In the Prime Ministerial Decree of 25 October, the Government recommends to the entire world of work, companies, businesses, professionals the use of the agile working method by private employers, pursuant to article 90 of the decree-law of 19 May 2020 , no. 34, converted with amendments by law 17 July 2020, n. 77, as well as the provisions of the protocols referred to in annexes 12 and 13 to this decree, through the advice of an expert for the adoption of smart working, of:
- implement agile working methods, where they can be carried out at home or remotely;
- to incentivize holidays and paid leave for employees and to implement the other tools provided for by collective bargaining;
- adopt anti-contagion safety protocols, without prejudice to the obligation to use respiratory protection devices where it is not possible to respect the interpersonal distance of at least one meter as the main containment measure;
- work place sanitation operations are encouraged, also by using forms of social safety nets for this purpose.
The simplified procedure for the new activations of smart working in the private sector
It should be noted that the simplified procedure formula for the adoption of smart working by private companies will remain in force until December 2020, corresponding to the adoption of the state of emergency. But from January 2021, unless it is necessary to extend beyond the state of emergency, the new activations of agile work in the private sector will have to follow the ordinary rules provided for by law 81/2017, which regulates the placement of workers in smart working.
The individual agreement for the adoption of smart working between company and worker
In order for a private employee to be placed in smart working for the fulfillment of their duties, the law requires that an individual agreement be signed with the help of an expert consultant in smart working between individual workers and the company with which to fix:
- the procedures for carrying out the service outside the company premises;
- the methods of exercising the managerial power of the employer;
- the tools to be used for carrying out the job duties;
- rest times;
- the measures to be taken to ensure the right to disconnect.
At this link there is an in-depth study on the procedures for adopting smart working for businesses: www.damianianddamiani.com/smart-working
In order to encourage the adoption of agile work, since last February thanks to the adoption of the state of emergency, the Government allows the adoption of the smart working method unilaterally and without individual agreement.
This is why the government recommends the adoption of smart working for the public and private sectors
The Government measures and the recommendations contained in the Prime Ministerial Decree are dictated by the urgency to reduce crowding in public transport during peak hours determined by the presence of users who go to work and, consequently, also reduce contagion opportunities. Although the Government’s goal of transforming 75% of on-site work into agile work is aimed at the Public Administrations of the State, the October DPCM contains explicit references to the adoption of agile work aimed at businesses, companies, large professional firms , so that the professional activities provided are also carried out through agile working methods, remote meetings and the adoption of online work tools, since many of the tasks entrusted to their employees can also be performed in smart working.
Some of the immediate benefits of smart working and agile work in private companies and public administration
Certainly the main purpose of the ever-increasing spread of smart working, in this historical moment, is to lighten the flow of people who are simultaneously on the street for obvious urgent work needs, first of all that of respecting the same working hours for everyone. In fact, the DPCM requires public administrations as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree no. 165, the incentive of agile work in the manner established by one or more decrees of the Minister of Public Administration, guaranteeing at least the percentage referred to in Article 263, paragraph 1, of the decree-law of 19 May 2020, no. 34. And then there is an invitation to public administrations and private employers to arrange for the differentiation of staff entry times, without prejudice to health and social health personnel, as well as those engaged in activities related to the emergency or in services essential audiences.
Find out here the other real benefits of smart working for workers and employers: Booklet Smart Working
Difference between teleworking and agile work or smart working
Many observe that, in reality, especially for public administrations, what we are witnessing is not the implementation of smart working but only the transfer home of the normal work duties carried out in the office by the employee. A large part of it is teleworking, not agile work.
However, if this may be true for the public employer, it is not true for the private one, precisely because of the normal individual agreements for the adoption of agile work. So in summary, by smart working we mean opportunities and new working models able to guarantee the company qualitative levels of production, in the face of a rationalization of costs and to the employee a method of evaluating his production performance based on a process by objectives and not on the quantitative level of hours worked or the fixed identification of the physical place from which to carry out his work duties.
Certainly the employer and the employee must have their guarantees of respect for the rights recognized to them but, in this regard, perhaps it would also be useful for both of them to take advantage of this contingent situation and of the simplified procedure with the derogation from individual agreements for the adoption of simplified smart working, to begin to see firsthand what are the advantages of agile working.
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