On Sept. 21, 2022, Law No. 142 of Sept. 21, 2022, was published in the Official Gazette (No. 221), which converted Decree Law No. 115 of Aug. 9, 2022 (the so-called Aid bis Decree) into law with amendments.
On the subject of agile work, the Legislature in conversion provided, until next December 31, 2022, the individual right to agile work for frail workers and parents of under 14s (Art. 23 bis of the Decree Law), as well as the possibility for private sector employers to use smart working with the simplified modalities used during the pandemic and, in particular, without the need for individual agreement (Art. 25 bis of the Decree Law).
1) Frail workers
The right for public and private employees is thus reinstated until Dec. 31, 2022, after it had expired on June 30, 2022, remaining possible, with a view to making this protection more effective, for the fragile worker to be assigned to a different task, as long as it falls within the same category under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement for the sector, or to training activities whose performance is possible remotely.
2) Working parents of under 14s
The right in question for private sector workers, which had expired on July 31, 2022, is restored until December 31, 2022. It is understood that the characteristics of the work performance must be compatible with the modalities of agile work and that in order to enjoy the right in question there is no other parent within the household who is a beneficiary of income support instruments related to suspension or cessation of work or another parent who is not a worker.
3) Private sector employers
It is, as of the measure's entry into force on December 31, 2022, superseded the obligatory return to the ordinary regime, which had previously been back in force as of September 1, 2022 and had resulted in the reinstatement of the need for the individual agreement pursuant to Law No. 81/2017 and the ordinary mode of communication to be made within five days (Ministerial Decree No. 149/2022), although in the first phase of application said deadline had been postponed to no later than November 1, 2022.
Therefore, the employer, as an alternative to the ordinary regime, may once again apply the simplified agile working mode to labor relations until December 31, 2022, that is, without agreement with the employee concerned and by making simplified communication.
