Smart working simplified goodbye: the return to the old rules in five points

This year, Easter Monday, 1 April, also marks the return of smart working to the ordinary regime regulated by Law No. 81/2017. Thus, most of the simplifications that were still provided for parents with children under 14 and frail workers until 31 March 2024 are gone. Let us see here at a glance the stakes that will regulate this mode of working that has now become part of the custom and habit 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 part of the employee's 'rights', as it was during the pandemic years, but passes as a 'mode of performance'.

2) During the Covid emergency in many companies, especially large ones, the use of smart working was regulated by collective agreements concluded between the parties at company level. If such an agreement is for an indefinite period, the companies can make changes, for example on the distribution of days to be alternated between presence and remote, and possibly propose a modification agreement to the employee that does not need to be communicated to the Ministry of Labour. If, on the other hand, individual smart working agreements are for a fixed term, they may be renewed on expiry and, in this case, communicated to the Ministry of Employment.

3) The ordinary discipline of agile work assigns priority to certain categories of workers, largely identified by Article 18, paragraph 3-bis of Law 81/2017. In particular, priority is to be given to requests submitted by workers with children up to twelve years of age or, without any age limit, in the case of children with disabilities. Priority is also given to smart working requests made by workers with disabilities in a situation of ascertained seriousness, or who are caregivers. Employers must guarantee effective priority to these requests in order not to risk possible"indirect sanctions", such as the inability to apply for gender equality certification and access to contribution bonuses or national calls.

4) Another category that has recently been given priority in the demand for agile mode work is that of elderly employees, from 55 years of age onwards, provided for in Legislative Decree 29/2024, the so-called Elderly Decree, in force since 19 March 2024 which, in paragraph 2 of Article 5 "Measures for the promotion of health and active ageing of elderly people to be implemented in workplaces", provides: "The employer shall take every initiative aimed at favouring older persons in the performance, even partially, of work in agile mode, in compliance with the regulations provided for by the national collective agreements in force in the sector".