The legislation on smart working changes again. With the amendments to the Milleproroghe approved on 9 February 2023 in the Budget and Constitutional Affairs commission of the Senate, the right to request (and obtain) smart working is back for parents with children under 14 in the private sector only, and for so-called “fragile” workers both in the private and in the public. For parents with children under 14, the right to request (and obtain) smart working expired in December. For the fragile, the current legislation expires on March 31st. For both categories, therefore, the right to smart working is now triggered until June 30th. The changes will come into force at the end of February with the publication of the Milleproroghe decree in the Official Gazette. Let’s see in five questions and answers what changes for workers and companies.
What happens in private?
In the private sector, both the “fragile” and the worker-parents of children under 14 have the right to carry out their work in smart working until 30 June (obviously if the service allows it, as provided for by the previous legislation, and to date not modified). It is a right to obtain smart working; the effective “quantity” of smart working (i.e. how many days) is put back to negotiation. For Professor Arturo Maresca (Labour law) at the Sapienza University of Rome, the smart working required by the regulations does not mean full remote work, but the alternation between face-to-face work and remote work. From this it follows that the right to request and obtain smart working does not automatically mean being 100% remote, but smart working will be obtained within the framework of the contracted company organisation. Where there is no collective agreement in the company, the employer will have to recognize smart working for both categories by 30 June.
What happens in the public?
In the PA, the extension until 30 June of the right to agile work concerns only “fragile” workers. And therefore not parents with children under 14, creating in fact yet another difference in treatment between public work and private work. The Minister of Labour, Marina Calderone, had made an initial commitment to the law for the protection of “fragile” workers. The law has a coverage of 16 million, found thanks to the commitment of the entire Meloni government.
Who are the fragile?
The so-called fragile workers for whom the extension of the right to agile work takes place after 31 March (and until 30 June) are those identified in a Health decree of 4 February 2022, i.e. those workers suffering from one of the “diseases with poor clinical compensation and with a particular connotation of seriousness” (for example, cancer patients). Fragile workers can also carry out smart working by being assigned to a different job included in the same category or area of classification, as defined by the current National Collective Labor Agreement, without any reduction in their salary, as required by current legislation.
When do the changes take effect?
The Milleproroghe decree is expected in the Official Gazette at the end of February. So the news on smart working for “fragile” and parents with children under 14 will come into effect at the end of February. For “fragile” workers, this is an extension, so they will have the right to work remotely after March 31st and until June 30th. For parents with children under 14, for whom the right to obtain smart working ended on 31 December 2022, this right will be regained, which can always be exercised and can be connected with company agreements (on the “quantity” of days remotely).