Remote Working: maintaining organisational models and managing employee health and safety (Newsletter Norme & Tributi No. 116 – Italian-German Chamber of Commerce – Vittorio De Luca, Luciano Vella)

The Italian Parliament, on May 10, 2017, approved a draft law on the protection of self-employment and flexible labour, which has been in force since June 13. The new legislation includes an entire section dedicated to the new method of performing work, according to the provisions of the so called “smart working”. Article 22 of the draft law establishes that (i) the employer must guarantee “health and safety of the worker performing his/her duties under remote working” methods and that (ii) the worker cooperates to the “implementation of the prevention measures established by the employer”. The provision, indirectly referring to articles from 17 to 20 of the Legislative Decree No. 81/08 (TUSL) will certainly lead to a rethinking of the organization, management and control models (231 models). In fact, the TUSL establishes that the 231 models must be adopted and effectively implemented ensuring a corporate system that would enable to meet all the obligations concerning, among others, compliance with the technical and structural standards of the law applicable to the workplaces. Therefore, the 231 models will have to deal with this new methods of work, which give ample choice to the worker regarding where to carry out the work. It will be the duty of the employer, however, to provide to employees a specific information notice about the risks that may arise from carrying out remote work.