Mothers and work represent a combination that in a traditionalist and conservative country like Italy has often made sparks. Recently, however, something has changed. Thanks to the cheques for the baby bonus and the mother bonus, there is a greater openness for working parents, who have to reconcile work and family. Smartworking is certainly a new frontier for working mothers, a way to manage their work in an intelligent way by reconciling family obligations.
On 29 January 2018, the draft law on "rules aimed at promoting flexible and simplified forms of telework" was presented. After three years, in 2019, smartworking became a fully-fledged legal requirement. Maternity and work are extremely delicate and important issues, so it is appropriate to know everything about smart working: definition, methods and opinions.
Smart working: what it is and how it works
Smartworking is the application of "agile work", understood as the method of execution of the employment relationship established by an agreement between the parties. This can involve forms of organization by phases, cycles and objectives and, in some cases, without constraints of time or place of work. Workers have the possibility to use technological tools to carry out their work activity with the aim of increasing competitiveness and facilitating the reconciliation of working and living times.
The meaning of smart is therefore related to the concept of flexibility, as workers can work partly within company premises, without a fixed workstation, and partly outside within the maximum duration of working hours established daily and weekly by law and collective bargaining.
Smart work: workers' rights
The smart working law 2018 establishes that the employer is responsible for the safety of workers and the proper functioning of the technological tools assigned to adequately perform its tasks. The employer must also provide the employee, or the workers' safety representative, with written information on an annual basis indicating the risks relating to that specific method of performing the work.
The worker has the right to protection against accidents occurring during work, or during the journey between home and office or other place used to carry out the activity. The tax and social security incentives deriving from increases in productivity and efficiency of subordinate work are also applicable when work is carried out in an agile and "smart" manner.
Both the salary and the regulatory treatment of the worker in smartworking mode refer to the collective agreement and not to the company agreement. The text establishes that workers who operate in "smart" mode are entitled to the same economic and regulatory treatment as workers who perform the same tasks exclusively within the company.
The smart working contract must be stipulated in writing in order to guarantee administrative regularity and provide concrete proof of this agreement. The contract may be a fixed-term contract or an open-ended contract and withdrawal is also permitted, in the event of a justified reason, for the fixed-term agreement. The agreement identifies the rest periods of the worker and the technical and organizational measures necessary to ensure the disconnection of the worker from the technological equipment of work.
Women at work: a new opportunity for mothers
Smartworking therefore seems to provide working mothers with the opportunity to enter the world of work through the front door, bypassing many obstacles and unfair practices that are tacitly accepted by all. Married women of childbearing age are often forced to sign a letter of resignation in white, a secret weapon that the employer can use to dismiss the employee in case of maternity. Even without this hateful practice, new mothers, after having given birth, have great difficulty returning to work because they have to look after their young children.
The discrepancy between the salaries of men and women, who earn less while holding positions similar to that of the "strong sex", is also worth noting. Moreover, women are often entrusted with the task of looking after the elderly or people who are not self-sufficient, so even in this case it is difficult if not impossible to reconcile work and family. It is precisely for family reasons that women are often forced to seek part-time employment, although they prefer full-time employment. This new way of working seems to offer a fair compromise to women who do not want to give up their families, but who do not want to give up their jobs either.
Smartworking: the response of companies
Companies in Italy have responded in a rather positive way to smartworking, so much so that according to a study in 2017 30% of companies have adopted the agile work, almost twice as much as the 17% of the previous year. Important companies in Italy have followed the smartworking path such as Ferrovie dello Stato, Vodafone, Ferrero, American Express, Barilla and Microsoft.
Mom and work: what do the smartworking workers think about it?
The combination of women and work is not as irreconcilable as it was some time ago, but what do the smartworking workers think about it? Randstad Workmonitor, a Dutch multinational that deals with research, selection and training of personnel, asked for it and the results were not so obvious. A good part of the Italian workers look favourably on smartworking, yet 2/3 of the employees still work in the office and one in two believes that agile work can have repercussions on their private lives.
Paradoxically, putting the advantages and disadvantages of technology on the balance, it is precisely female workers who are not very convinced of smart working. According to the survey, in fact, most of them do not consider smartworking to be an instrument of greater independence or a factor in the balance between work and leisure time. Women, compared to their male colleagues, prefer the office as a place of work and do not look favourably on work from home, even if in an occasional form.
This is a cultural and social revolution to which Italy is obviously not yet ready. However, digital is a concrete reality that is now spreading rapidly in the world of work and, over time, it will be easier to identify and benefit from the obvious advantages offered by smartworking.