From April 1st 2024, to work in smart working it will be necessary to stipulate, or have stipulated, an individual agreement between the worker and the company. And this will apply to all categories of workers. In fact, on March 31, the exemptions provided during Covid for the frail and for parents of children under 14 expired and which, through various extensions, had so far allowed these categories to request smart working through the simplified procedure.
An increasingly significant phenomenon that has changed the habits of many Italians. In 2023, remote workers in our country will stand at 3.585 million, slightly up on the 3.570 million in 2022, but 541% more than pre-Covid. In 2024 it is estimated there will be 3.65 million smart workers in Italy, as revealed by the Smart Working Observatory of the School of Management of the Polytechnic of Milan.
From 1 April therefore, even in the private sector, it will be necessary for everyone to sign an individual agreement between worker and employer, as required by art. 19 of law no. 81/2017. And the simplified regime will no longer be granted in any way or to any category of worker, i.e. without an agreement and in the shortest possible way.
“We therefore return to the model established in 2017. Covid had led to a massive use of the tool, which migrated from organizational innovation towards an emergency purpose. This has generated two systemic effects: on the one hand, decoupling smart working from the strictly entrepreneurial purpose, but on the other, it has demonstrated its wide practicability and its benefits also on a social level”, observes labor law expert Francesco Rotondi, advisor to Cnel and founder of the LabLaw firm.
What changes
The individual agreement must be stipulated in writing for the purposes of administrative regularity and proof, and regulates the execution of the work carried out outside the company premises, also with regard to the forms of exercise of the employer's managerial power and the tools used by the worker. The agreement must also regulate “the worker's rest times as well as the technical and organizational measures necessary to ensure the worker's disconnection from technological work equipment”.
Companies have no obligation to guarantee smart. If so, some categories have priority. The 2017 law in fact assigns priority to requests made by: workers with children up to twelve years of age, or without age limit in the case of disabled children, workers with disabilities in a situation of proven severity, or caregivers. Furthermore, the so-called elderly decree provides that priority in smart working is also given to those aged 65 and over. Priority does not mean absolute right. If the company decides not to implement smart working, workers belonging to the above-mentioned categories must also adapt.
In the public administration, simplified smart working for the vulnerable ended on 31 December. A directive from the Ministry of Public Administration, however, provides for the need to guarantee workers who document “serious, urgent and not otherwise reconcilable health, personal and family situations” the possibility of carrying out their work in an agile manner.
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