Law no. 77/2020 has amended Article 90, Paragraph 1 related to “Decreto  Rilancio” with reference to Remote Working and it has envisaged that until the end of the epidemiological emergency from COVID-19, the right to carry out remote working is recognized, based on the assessments of doctors competent, even to workers most exposed to the risk of contagion from SARS-CoV-2 virus, due to:

• the age or
• the risk’s condition

1. immunosuppression,
2. from outcomes of oncological pathologies or
3. by carrying out life-saving therapies or,
4. from comorbidities that can characterize a situation of greater riskiness ascertained by the competent doctor, in the context of the health surveillance referred.

Moreover, even if until July 31, 2020, it is possible to activate the remote working in the simplified variant for COVID-19 without the individual agreement with the employee, it must be considered very useful to provide in any case an individual agreement in order to discipline, for example: (i) the control power of the employer, (ii) certain profiles related to the use of IT tools that have obvious privacy implications, (iii) the so-called right to disconnect (the times of non-work, of unavailability).

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Source: Guida al Lavoro

Legislative Decree no. 34/2020 (so-called “Decreto Rilancio”) has been converted, with amendments, into Law no. 77 of July 17, 2020.

The most significant innovations concerning the employment profiles introduced by Law 77/2020 are the following:

A.         Social shock absorbers

• The provisions of Legislative Decree no. 52/2020 regarding the use of the 4 additional weeks of salary integration are implemented. In particular, it is provided that the 4 additional weeks of salary integration initially allocated for the period 1 September 2020 – 31 October 2020 can be used even before 1 September 2020.
• Earlier use is subject to full use of the 14 weeks for the period 23 February 2020 – 31 August 2020, without prejudice to the maximum total duration of 18 weeks of wage supplementation.

B.         Parental leave

• From July 31 to August 31 2020, the period within which parents working in the private sector with children up to the age of 12 years (and without age limit for parents working with children in a state of disability or disability in a state of proven seriousness) may request 50% paid leave, up to a maximum of 30 days, which may be taken on a daily or hourly basis, is extended, without prejudice to periods already taken before the law came into force.

C.         Transfer of undertaking: minimum duration of the trade union consultation phase

• Until August 17, 2020, the trade union consultation phase referred to in Article 47, paragraph 2, Law no. 428/90 may not last less than forty-five days, if no agreement has been reached.

D.        Extension of the right to remote working to those most exposed to the risk of contagion

• The right to remote working provided for parents who are employed in the private sector with at least one child under the age of 14, is extended, until the end of the epidemiological emergency by COVID-19, on the basis of assessments by the competent doctors, also to workers who are most at risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2, due to the age or the risk condition deriving from immunodepression, from oncological pathologies or from life-saving therapies or, in any case, from co-morbidities that may characterize a situation of higher risk ascertained by the competent doctor in the context of health control. This on condition that the remote working is compatible with the characteristics of the work performance.

E.         Extension of apprenticeship contracts and fixed-term contracts, also in the temporary work scheme

• The term of the apprenticeship contracts, with the exception of professional apprenticeship contract,  and of the fixed-term contracts, including temporary contracts, is extended by a duration equal to the period of suspension of work, performed under the same contracts, as a result of the epidemiological emergency by COVID-19.

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The law firm De Luca & Partners remains available to provide any information necessary to deal with the emergency, as well as to develop the best strategies to minimize its impact on business productivity.

Vittorio De Luca on air on Class CNBC at “The price of the virus” conducted by Andrea Cabrini, along with other guests including the Undersecretary of State of the Ministry of Labour, Stanislao Di Piazza. Among the topics, the responsibility of employers in case of contagion of employees and the social shock absorbers provided by the “Decreto Rilancio” pending publication in the Official Gazette (speech from minute 24’55”).

Here the interview.