The emergency measures issued by the Government to manage the pandemic emergency of Covid-19 have attributed, to all intents and purposes, to remote-working also the function of a contagion containment measure and consequently a means to protect workers’ health.

Remote-working, in fact, is a way of carrying out work activities that, while allowing them to continue, allows, by substantially reduction of the number of people entering and visiting the workplace, to limit contact between people and consequently also the risks of contagion.

Although it is true that it is not possible to state that the worker has a right to remote-working, it is equally true that it is not possible to state that the employer has a mere faculty to activate smart-working at the time of the COVID19.

On this point, Court of Grosseto, through the decision of April 23, 2020, that we will examine later, stated that: “In this context, the use of remote-working, governed in general by Law No 81 of 22 May 2017, has been considered a priority. For obvious reasons, this modality of work cannot, and could not, be imposed in a general and indiscriminate manner; nevertheless, it has been repeatedly and strongly recommended and even considered as an ordinary way of performing the service in the Public Administration. (see art. 87, D.L. 18/2020). In addition, pursuant to art. 39, para. 2, of Legislative Decree no. 18/2020, “workers in the private sector, suffering from serious and proven pathologies with reduced working capacity, have priority in performing remote work pursuant to articles 18 to 23 of the law of 22 May 2017,”.

The case originates from an emergency action pursuant to Article 700 of the Italian Criminal Code filed by a worker who claimed the right to trigger remote-working.

Read the full version of the article in Italian language here.

Source: Il Quotidiano del Lavoro