The novelties of the remote working bill passed by the Senate

The remote working bill, approved by the Senate and which is now before the Chamber of Deputies, contains important novelties that may simplify this distance working method considerably. On the question of workplace accidents and occupational diseases, protection for employees against risks associated with services provided outside the company premises will be increased and the concept of commuting accident will also be reviewed. As regards safety, the employer will be required to give guidelines to employees (and the workers’ health and safety representative), at least once a year, indicating the general and specific potential risks associated with performing the employment duties outside the company premises. Despite the legislative void (which at this point should be filled shortly), this remote working is in any case already used by Italian companies. As confirmed by the study conducted on the novelties of the labour market by the remote Working Monitoring Centre of the School of Management of the Polytechnic University of Milan, there are today as many as 250 thousand so-called “active” workers, a figure which was up by 40% with respect to 2013 and represents 7% of the labour market, and includes white collar workers, middle managers and executives.