By Law converting, with amendments, Decree-Law no. 48/2023 – (the ‘Employment Decree’ (‘Decreto Lavoro’)) containing ‘Urgent measures for social inclusion and access to the workplace’ – which has been approved by the Italian parliament and is currently scheduled to be published in the Italian Official Gazette (“Conversion Law“) – the right to remote working will be extended:
It should be noted that the above-mentioned Decree of the Minister of Health, February 4th, 2022 – converted, with amendments, by Law no. 11 of February 18th, 2022 – identifies the conditions of the subject and the chronic pathologies with low clinical compensation and with a particular connotation of seriousness under which the employee’s primary care physician certifies the situation of vulnerability for the purposes of the application of certain transitional rules of favor (Please refer to Article 28-bis of the Conversion Law).
(Please refer to Article 42, 3-ter, of the Conversion Law).
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Contribution and tax relief introduced by the budget law and extension of remote working for vulnerable persons
DID YOU KNOW THAT… On 5 May 2023 the so-called ‘Employment Decree’ came into force?
On 7 December, the social partners and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies signed the “National Protocol on remote working” (the “Protocol“).
As stated in the introduction, the protocol“establishes the reference framework for the definition of remote working by expressing guidelines for national, corporate and local collective bargaining in compliance with the legal framework set out in Law 22 May 2017, no. 81 and existing collective agreements, entrusting collective bargaining with what is necessary to implement the different and specific production frameworks.”
The main guidelines
Firstly, the Protocol clarifies that applying remote working must be voluntary and must be subject to signing an individual agreement without prejudice to the right of withdrawal. Any refusal by the worker to perform remote working does not constitute dismissal for just cause or justified reason, nor is it relevant from a disciplinary point of view.
The individual agreement must regulate aspects such as
Remote working does not require a precise working time but independence within the pre-established objectives and respect for the organisation and assigned tasks to ensure company operability and interconnection between the various business departments. This independence was found in the choice of workplace. However, the Protocol clarifies: “the service performance […] can be divided into time slots, identifying […] the disconnection time in which the worker does not work.” ” technical and organisational measures must guarantee the disconnection period.”
The Protocol points out that, as a rule, the employer provides the technological and IT equipment necessary for remote working. If it is agreed to use personal tools, it is necessary to establish adequate security criteria and requirements.
The Protocol requires the worker to process personal data accessed for professional purposes under employer instructions. To ensure compliance with personal data protection legislation and confidentiality, the employer must:
During remote working, the employer must ensure health and safety by providing the worker, and RLS (Workers’ Safety Representative) written information describing the general and specific risks associated with remote working. The Protocol states that the worker continues to be entitled to protection against accidents at work and occupational diseases, risks related to work performed outside the company premises, even if this is remote working.
The employer must (i) provide training courses aimed at increasing specific technical, organisational and digital skills for the effective and safe use of the work tools provided and (ii) guarantee compulsory training on the protection of workers’ health and safety and personal data.
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The Protocol provides guidelines as a reference framework for future national, corporate or local collective bargaining, without prejudice to existing and individual agreements.
Other related insights:
“It is essential that Companies ensure the proper implementation of remote working during the current emergency phase and in the post-pandemic era. This is only possible by preparing a “remote working plan” centred on two factors – the Individual Agreement and the Framework Regulation.”
“Companies resorting to remote working must consider the related privacy aspects. They must adopt technical and organisational measures to protect the remote worker’s data and the security of the company’s information assets.
This is what Vittorio De Luca and Elena Cannone said as speakers at the webinar organised by Il Sole 24 Ore “Remote working and returning to work: post-emergency considerations.”
The topics discussed were:
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Institutional greetings
Eraldo Minella General Manager Area
Professional Services, Gruppo24ORE
Lawyer Vittorio De Luca – Managing Partner De Luca & Partners – Il Sole 24ORE Expert
Lawyer Elena Cannone – Managing Associate De Luca & Partners
I. REMORT WORKING):
– the origin of remote working
– differences with teleworking
– the remote working regulations
– emergency remote working (including remote working and green pass)
– who is a remote worker?
– health and safety at work
– the remote worker’s accident
– Framework regulation on remote working
– remote working and data protection and privacy
– incentive systems
II. THE RIGHT TO DISCONNECT
III. PRACTICAL CASES
Remote working has had an exponential increase due to the Covid-19 health emergency which started in 2020. Remote working has gone from being a tool designed to increase productivity and improve the “work-life balance” to a fundamental tool for containing the pandemic wave and reduce the risk of virus transmission in the workplace.
The advantages and potential of this method have oriented many companies towards a new “hybrid” organisation that combines in-person and remote working.
Many companies have applied a more flexible agreements and regulations that allows workers to choose when to work in-person or remotely, making their space and time boundaries more fluid.
Considering the complex emergent regulatory framework, proper remote working conduct becomes crucial. It needs to be understood that “remote” working does not mean working “from home.” Under art. 18, paragraph 1 of Law no. 81/2017, the remote worker, works partly inside company premises and partly outside, without a fixed location.
In the post-pandemic scenario, to make the most of the “new normal“, companies must prepare a “Remote Working plan” focused on the individual agreement between the parties and framework regulations which govern its use.
Read our DLP Insights on this topic.
Our system’s real problem is an absence of serious active employment policies. De Luca & Partners managing partner Vittorio De Luca, discusses the agreement on the end of the dismissal prohibition and Decree Law 99/2021, just approved by the Draghi government. “An explosion of redundancies is nothing more than the consequence of a ban that has gone on too long. Further generalised extensions would only have made the situation worse. The prohibition has prevented companies from renewing for far too long and paralysed worker redeployments. Finally, they will now restart and move the market and employment again.”
Another hot topic is the reform of social safety nets, which has been announced many times and is increasingly necessary during the post-pandemic period. “The social safety net system, after the 2015 reform, is fragmented and cannot protect the categories affected by the recession and provide financial benefits that represent decisive and lasting support. The pandemic has clearly shown the limits of our social safety net system. It is essential
to proceed with a comprehensive reform quickly.
The government has reached an agreement with the social partners on the dismissal prohibition. “The agreement includes a “commitment” to use all existing social safety nets before resorting to redundancies.
However, it is just a form of moral persuasion. Moreover, this commitment is unmentioned in the new decree text. This is small consolation for those clamouring for a further extension of the dismissal prohibition.”
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, has recently announced that the company intends to permanently integrate remote working into its working practices, albeit with a hybrid approach, e.g. three days in the office and two days remotely.
These statements highlight the growing interest in remote working, a system that many companies were forced to try out for the first time during the lockdown and which has now become a real revolution. In many cases, it has become a structural choice due to its undoubted advantages, from a better work-life balance to reducing the stress of travelling to work.
A NEW NORMALITY
At present, according to INAPP (National Institute for Public Policy Analysis) data, 54% of employees in large companies work wholly or partly on a remote basis; furthermore, according to an analysis conducted by the Milan Polytechnic Observatory and Randstad Research, remote working may involve 3 to 5 million workers in the coming months. The path should be the one traced by the CEO of Google: according to a recent study by Fondirigenti, people will prefer to split the week in two or to alternate days in the office and remote work, so as not to sacrifice social relations and physical interaction with their colleagues. According to Vittorio De Luca, managing partner of the De Luca & Partners law firm, specialised in labour law and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), “in the near future, remoteworking policies will become more and more a rule and no longer just an exception”. remoteworking policies have also been promoted by the law: the Riaperture Decree has extended until 31 July the possibility for employers to use this instrument with a unilateral act, i.e. without having to sign an individual agreement. This deadline should be extended until 31 December also for the private sector, thus aligning it with what is already in place for the public administration. “However,” De Luca points out, “at the end of the emergency period it will be appropriate and necessary to regulate the relationship between the parties involved, i.e. employers on the one hand and workers (remote workers) on the other hand.”
THE PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED
Remote working was first introduced in the Italian system by Law 81/2017. Remote working, says De Luca, is defined in the law “as a new and flexible way of organising employment, with no exact definition of the place and time of work, providing that the activity can take place partly inside the company’s premises and partly outside, without a fixed location, though in compliance with the limits on maximum daily and weekly working time established by law and by the applicable national collective agreement. In order for this to happen”, he adds, “an agreement, strictly in writing (for the purposes of proof and administrative regularity), must be entered into by the company and the worker”. And it is precisely the release from spatial and temporal limits, notes the expert, “which, if not regulated in advance, might have negative consequences for both the employee and the employer, from both a professional/work and a social/personal point of view”.
“Indeed, remote working has made the time profile of the service not essential, placing the objectives and performances of the resources concerned at the centre”, explains De Luca. So that “it is of primary importance for employers to be able to check and assess the results of remote workers”, whilst also determining “the forms of exercise of the employer’s power, paying attention to the manner, purpose and content of the same”. There follows the need, he concludes, to “introduce agreements, accompanied by internal procedures and regulations, which govern these aspects, also instructing the worker on the use of work equipment and on company security and personal data protection”.
