Smart working and coworking are, in the view of NotOnlyDesk, key elements of the current and future corporate organisation. There are several advantages brought by the remote work solutions that we have examined. Let's now delve into some particular cases, trying for example to analyse the relationship between smart working and parenting.
Personal and work life
The so-called
smart work has been, in recent years, one of the main ingredients of a recipe aimed at creating an effective balance between personal life and professional life; and several steps have been taken in this direction since, on June 20, 2019, Directive number 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council provided for a series of interventions to promote an improvement in the balance between work and family life. Interventions that, in Italy, were merged into Legislative Decree no. 105 of June 30, 2022, published in the Official Gazette on July 29 and entered into force on August 13, 2022.
These provisions were considered necessary to try to best reconcile family and work; and one of the main key points of Directive number 2019/1158 and, therefore, of Legislative Decree No. 105 of June 30, 2022, concerns the interest in ensuring that the smart solutions that can be adopted can at the same time also promote a balance of responsibility between men and women and therefore the achievement of a double gender equality, both in the professional and private spheres.
Paternity leave
If it is true, in fact, that remote work has brought and continues to bring considerable advantages to professionals, it is not automatically true that smart working represents a step forward in terms of equality and equality. The Gender Balance Sheet published at the beginning of 2022 by the Ministry of Economy and Finance highlighted in fact that "the use of emergency smart working has made it possible to highlight how conciliation tools can have paradoxical effects in reducing gaps when they are not themselves used equally". Starting from this consideration, it is therefore useful to underline what are the measures that Directive number 2019/1158 and Legislative Decree No. 105 have instead promoted to favour both sexes.
Among the main conciliation tools, we cannot fail to discuss the importance of extending paternity leave. Already with the 2021 Budget Law - then confirmed by the transposition of the EU directive and the subsequent decree - employed new fathers have in fact obtained the right, on the occasion of the birth of their son or daughter (but also in the case of adoption or foster care) to 10 days of abstention from work, compensated at 100% of the salary. A measure that since 2017 has seen the number of days of paid absence increase from 2 to 10 (20 if the delivery is multiple) and which, in addition, provides for the possibility, on the part of fathers, to distribute the days of work break from 2 months prior to the supposed date of delivery up to 5 months after birth. An instrument that, although still could be improved, - the former Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Elena Bonetti family had spoken in October 2021 of the possibility of extending the leave up to 3 months (probability at the moment shelved also considering the change of government) - represents an essential step along the road that leads to gender equality.
Parental leave and Milleproroghe Decree
In support of parenting, in terms of balance between family and work life, it is also difficult to forget the transformations and changes undergone in recent years by "parental leave", or that period of abstention from work that is not mandatory, but optional, granted to mothers and fathers during the first years of their child's life. I leave that, provided for both parents, is compensated by the INPS. But what does it consist of?
The rule, as mentioned several times remodulated - both by the novelties of the 2022 Budget Law and, once again, by the directives of the European Union merged into the aforementioned Decree several times - today provides for a period of 9 months of abstention, 8 of which are compensated at 30% of the salary and the remaining at 80%. Abstention to be considered of course in addition to mandatory maternity and paternity leave, and useable up to the child's 12 years for all workers, with the exception of the self-employed (who can take advantage of it within the 1st year). Finally, we must not forget that, beyond the provisions provided for by the EU directive included in the 2022 legislative decree, other measures that link motherhood and fatherhood to smart work have recently been made known. As already pointed out in our examination of the relationship between smart work and fragile workers (and parents under 14 in the private sector) we remind you that the Milleproroghe Decree 2023 converted into Law and published in the Official Gazette on February 27, 2023 extended smart working until June 30, 2023. Extension that, although in the absence of a legislative rule on the subject and can only be implemented as a business practice, it also remains valid for pregnant women; for whom the possibility of performing work remotely is still provided - for more than two days a week - provided that this necessity has been certified by a doctor and subsequently validated by the Competent Company Doctor. For NotOnlyDesk, present and future can therefore only be smart. But flexibility and comfort cannot ignore equality and gender equality for us. Only in this way can our vision be realised; only in these terms can the mission of an international networking become a reality.
