Lawyer Monthly Magazine -December 2019 Edition

About Us We are both Partners of Ichino Brugnatelli e Associati Admitted to the bar in Milan, we have strong expertise in employment law and labour law, social security issues and privacy-related matters, also through previous significant experience with leading Law firms, both national and inter- national. We have taken part in extraor- dinary corporate transactions, focusing on Labour Law issues related to mergers and acqui- sitions, restructuring and reor- ganizations, redundancies and downsizing. Ichino Brugnatelli e Associati is widely recognised as a lead- ing specialist employment law firm. We have also strong expe- rience in high-stakes litigation and complex transactions, for both domestic and interna- tional clients. Sergio Passerini Luca Daffra using “agile work” for fear of substantial compensation to be paid for possible accidents - extended INAIL’s mandatory general insurance is needed to cover accidents outside company structures. The other side of the coin of this provision is, obviously, an increase in insurance costs to be borne by the employer. To try to limit the said higher insurance costs, however, Article 23 of Law No. 81/2017 itself has established that workers are entitled to protection against accidents at work occurring outside company premises only if specific conditions are met: - if the accident occurred during the normal journey from/to the place of residence of the employee to/from the place chosen for his/her work performance outside company premises; - when the choice of the place for work performance is dictated by needs related to the performance itself or by the need of the employee to reconcile work/life balance meets reasonable criteria; - wheretheaccidentoccurred using a private vehicle, only if the place of destination could not be reached by other public means. Sometime after the enactment of the law, by circular no. 48 of 2nd November 2017, INAIL provided some operational instructions on the insurance protection of the employee in smart working mode, but without giving useful answers. In fact, the Social Security Insurance Institute had simply suggested using individual agreements to reduce risks, stating that, in the absence of specific indications in individual agreements, in order for an employee to be compensated for the accident occurred, whether the activity carried out by the employee at the time of the accident could be defined as closely related to the work would have to be ascertained, despite being carried out outside the premises of the company. To summarise In conclusion, we can say that the express recognition by Italian legislation to create a useful tool to make the work more flexible was certainly an important step towards a concept of modern work in line with the already occurred digital revolution. However, notwithstanding the commendable initiative taken, apparently, the legislator has overregulated this area, that perhaps did not need it, and left some ambiguities in the regulation, so as to potentially discourage the use of this instrument, especially by small businesses. LM 75 DEC 2019 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM Expert Insight By Luca Daffra and Sergio Passerini, Ichino Brugnatelli e Associati Avv. Luca Daffra – Avv. Sergio Passerini Via Lorenzo Mascheroni, 31 20145 Milano - Italy Tel: +39 02 4819 3249 (switchboard) Email: luca.daffra@ichinobrugnatelli.it; sergio.passerini@ichinobrugnatelli.it; Web: https://ichinobrugnatelli.it “Another unclear area in the discipline of “agile work” is the one relating to safety at work and possible accidents and occupational diseases of the smart worker.”