Smart working Yes or no? There are those who want it forever (companies and workers) and those who would like to bring their employees back to the office as soon as possible. In this second case, we are dealing with all the related activities that live on work in the presence (bars, restaurants, shops, services, etc.).
It must be said that the pandemic has not upset the way of working, but has accelerated the process of teleworking which has already been possible for 20 years. Digitization and the internet have created the conditions for smart working for some time and in many countries of the world it was already an established reality even before the coronavirus. In Italy, on the other hand, we have remained stuck in the past and working from home has always been viewed a little by everyone. It took the lockdown to make an epochal change in the way of working, especially in the tertiary sector.
The advantages of smart working
Now that employees, professionals and companies have experienced the advantages of smart working, they no longer want to abandon it. In short, you have to bang your head to understand it, when elsewhere they had already put it into practice for years. Protest artisans and traders who no longer fill bars and restaurants as before, but – on closer inspection – for the workers it was all a waste of time and money. As well as for companies that do not have to worry about managing spaces, keeping offices clean, in compliance with safety regulations and functional to every need. Therefore, going back will be difficult, as well as counterproductive for those who work and employ.
In Germany and in France the respective governments are about to introduce a law that obliges companies to grant agile work to those who request it.
At the same time, those services and offices where smart working will be the rule will be identified in the public administration sectors even if it is not requested by the worker. And in Italy? Here too, the Conte government is about to implement an important regulation of agile work. On October 15, 2020, the simplified mechanism that allows the employer, both public and private, to use smart working expires.
New rules coming for smart working
From 16 October, smart working will be allowed only through individual agreements between employers and workers. But by that date the Minister of Labor Nunzia Catalfo he intends to intervene on the matter regulating smart working with specific regulations. Also because the health emergency is not over. It will then be collective bargaining to discipline agile work, with a more marked role to be entrusted to national or company contracts that will be able to regulate issues such as the right to disconnect, deal with work-life balance, for example to avoid penalties for the workers on whom they weigh. already caring for family members, or dealing with the provision of meal vouchers.
I work 60% PA from home
In this context, the public administration deserves particular attention. Among the hypotheses under consideration is that of extending smart working from 50% to 60% in line with the provisions of the Minister of Public Administration, Fabiana Dadone. In a recent seminar organized by the M5S, Minister Catalfo recalled that
“Agile work in the public administration has been widely used: more than 80% of workers in the Ministry of Labor have been put into smart working. In the other administrations, too, agile work has been massively used, with full staff satisfaction and significant savings in public spending ”.
Municipalities, Regions, Ministries, Agencies, etc. they will therefore have to take the view that the work will increasingly be done remotely rather than in the presence of the office. Productivity has benefited from this in these months of 2020 and even administrations can finally cut the exorbitant costs.
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