Smart working is no longer the rule, it is no longer enshrined in post-pandemic law, but in many cases it is done structurally because for companies – and employees – it is an opportunity and it does not disappear. Let’s be clear: it’s partial now (one, two days a week), on rotation (not all together), only on certain sectors. Thus it can resist and indeed become part of new employment contracts, even essential for those candidates who, during the interview, consider it a key element in the choice.
Collective bargaining
The last extension for smart working in the private sector expired at the end of March (on December 31st it was the public’s turn): now it falls under collective bargaining, in agreement with the trade union parties, or individual bargaining. Until before Easter they continued to use it, to varying degrees, fragile subjects, with pathologies or disabilities, and parents with children up to 14 years of age: now they too must return to work. Or rather, they can negotiate the return, just as they have already done or other office colleagues can do it. Roberto Toigo, secretary of Uil Veneto, opens with a reflection: «In most cases – he says – this “smart”, intelligent, had little, transforming into “home working”, moving the business from the office to the dining room table. And discussion and sociality have disappeared, in some cases even leading to forms of alienation. Instead, it was necessary – and we succeeded only with large companies, a minority in Veneto – a regulation on the achievement of objectives rather than on timetables”. He then reports an Italian figure, considered to be comparable to the Venetian one: 52% of large companies and 32% of SMEs continue to implement agile working.
Flexibility, watchword
If working remotely is impossible for those who work in contact with the public (catering, retail, counters) or provide manual services (artisans, workers), for administrators, clerks, IT and digital workers, flexibility is the watchword. The banking sector was the first to adapt, even before 2020, services followed suit. And there are communications companies, such as call centers and online commerce, which they have discontinued the locations to work only in smart. «When it is not “total smart” it is a method appreciated by workers to encourage conciliation and by companies, which have reduced physical spaces – notes Tiziana Basso, secretary of the CGIL Veneto -. However, it must guarantee suitable work tools and the right to disconnect. Some companies had requested a return to in-person attendance already after the pandemic emergency, even when the right to do so was guaranteed, but over time the method became known and appreciated. Furthermore, it reduces travel times, consumption and costs». The skeptics and those against remain: remote working reduces opportunities for discussion and coordination and erases sociality, but bargaining on home working is not completely ostracized: «It has worked in large companies, I am thinking of the food and engineering sectors , in the clerical part, thanks to the rotation – continues -. For small companies, however, it is much more complex and is often not granted.” The «end of smart working», in short, was modulated and discussed well before the end of March. «The agreements were stipulated above all in 2021-22, after Covid, many industries regulated it but more could have been done – comments Gianfranco Refosco, secretary of the CISL Veneto -. We went back too quickly, after the great lesson of the pandemic someone had second thoughts. Perhaps because it is an organizational challenge.” In the public sector, smart working affects around 10% of the 23 thousand employees of the Municipalities and 1,300 of the Provinces and metropolitan cities. After the pandemic the percentages were already very low and the return was progressive after the (peremptory) invitation of the Ministry. Today it is a management linked to the organisation’s organizational activity, the result of individual agreements with employees who request it and is authorized based on administrative needs. It is clear that in small municipalities, where there is only one operator, smart is almost impossiblebut in the large ones, rotational work favors conciliation for one day a week.
The effects
The effect on cities was evident: emptier offices, lunch breaks in clubs and less crowded public transport. «It has been noticed both in the production areas and in the historic centers – analyzes Laura Fregolent, full professor of Technical and urban planning at the Iuav -. But cities adapt to changes. “Non-presence” is a negative valueerases relationships and interactions, but the impact was less than we could have imagined when it seemed that with the lockdown we would be stuck at home for a long time, foretelling a tragic scenario. We have learned a lot from remote working, it was an opportunity, canceling it completely would not have been advantageous.” Tiziano Barone, director of Veneto Lavoro, closes: «Smart working is a challenge to be taken up and should not be demonised: it is an organizational model based on the achievement of the objective, combined with the possibility of increase the quality of life of the worker. And for many young people it has become essential when making a choice of employment: well-being, the time of one’s life, is as important as the salary.”
