Smart working, none for the vulnerable in the private sector

Lor smart working for fragile workers in private it ends on March 31st and there will be no extension. In the absence of anything new, therefore, i parents of under 14s and the frail will have to return to attendance and they will no longer be able to exercise the right to work in an “agile” mode.

Smart working, no extension for the fragile

To better understand what is happening we need to go back a few months. In September the Government had extended until December 31st the possibility of doing your work from home, for vulnerable workers, in the private sector and in public administration. Entering 2024, smart working for public employees ended while, for the private sector alone, a new extension until March 31, 2024, through the Advances Decree. The extension of this status seemed supported by the Executive, but the last troubled commission on the topic canceled it.

Hope in the company

What they can still hope for, however, is the decision of employers to establish it with «individual agreementswhich go into detail on objectives and methods ad personam of the performance of the work performance”, as stated in the directive issued at Christmas by the Minister of Public Administration, Paolo Zangrillo.

The directive also guarantees the possibility of carrying out work in an agile manner, “to workers who document serious, urgent and not otherwise reconcilable health, personal and family situations”. In practice, word to the managers, who it must be said now often offer smart working to be more attractive for workers. However, if everything is clear for fragile workers, it is much less so for parents with children under 14 who seem to have been forgotten. No reference to them even in the directive.

Smart working workers: how many are there?

With or without an extension, smart working is changing working relationships. Research agrees that the way employees are managed has an approximately 4 times greater influence on worker commitment and well-being. According to the reports of the specific Polimi observatory, in Italy there are still 3.6 million remote workers: the smart working that exploded during the pandemic, in short, has not yet collapsed, despite the end of the political measures. Indeed, in 2023 remote workers in Italy grew slightly compared to 2022, with a +541% increase compared to pre-Covid. The forecast for 2024 is for further growthand not only in large companies, where offering remote working days has now become almost a necessity.

Big businesses believe in it more

In 2023, remote workers have increased especially in large companies with over one worker in two, equal to 1.88 million people. However, they also increased only slightly in SMEs, with 570 thousand workers. Furthermore, almost all large companies, 96%, which include agile working initiatives within them, largely with structured models, present better results in the ability to attract talent, inclusiveness, people’s engagement and balance in the work-life relationship.

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