Goodbye simplified smart working: the return to the old rules in five points

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This year, Easter Monday, Monday 1 April, also marks the return of smart working to the ordinary regime regulated by add n. 81/2017. Most of the simplifications that were still foreseen for parents with children under 14 and fragile workers until 31 March 2024 are therefore no longer applicable. Here we see in summary the limits that will regulate this working method which has now become part of the customs and habits of many companies and workers. .

1) the entrepreneur who decides to use agile working will have to sign an individual agreement with each employee. In other words, smart working is no longer among the “rights” of the worker, as during the years of the pandemic, but becomes one of the “methods of performing the service”.

2) During the Covid emergency in many companies, especially large ones, the use of smart working was regulated by collective agreements stipulated between the parties at company level. If this agreement is for an indefinite period, companies will be able to make changes, for example on the distribution of days to be alternated in person and remotely, and possibly propose a modification agreement to the worker which does not need to be communicated to the Ministry of Labour. However, if the individual smart working agreements have expired, they can be renewed upon expiry and, in this case, communicated to the Ministry of Labour.

3) The ordinary regulation of agile working assigns priority to certain categories of workers, largely identified by article 18, paragraph 3-bis of law 81/2017. In particular, requests presented by workers with children up to twelve years of age or, without any age limit, in the case of children with disabilities are to be considered priority. Smart working requests made by workers with disabilities in situations of proven severity, or who are caregivers, are also a priority. Employers must ensure effective priority for these requests to avoid potential risks “indirect sanctions”such as the impossibility of requesting certification of gender equality and access to contribution bonuses or national tenders.

4) Another category that has recently been recognized as a priority in the request for agile working is that of elderly employees, aged 55 and over, provided for by Legislative Decree 29/2024, the so-called Elderly Decree, in force from 19 March 2024 which, in paragraph 2 of article 5 “Measures for the promotion of the health and active aging of elderly people from implement in the workplace”, provides: “The employer adopts every initiative aimed at encouraging elderly people in carrying out, even partially, their work performance in an agile manner, in compliance with the regulations established by the national collective agreements in the sector in force”.