The unions call for a massive return to agile work, but for the Department of Public Administration the request is “incomprehensible”. Flexibility, he explains, “is already extensive”
Covid and Omicron variant in Italy, with the surge in infections, the debate on smart working for Public Administration workers is ignited again. But while trade unions, experts,
but also the M5S, ask that the possibility of ‘agile work’ from home be completely restored to stem new cases and outbreaks in the public sector and not to be found “unprepared” by the new wave, today the Department of Public Administration rejected the requests to the sender, calling them “incomprehensible”, given the “already ample flexibility to organize both attendance and remote work, both in public work and in private work. “And underlining how vaccinations, green passes and Super green passes have guaranteed the highest level of health safety.
PA: “INCOMPRENSIBLE INVOCATION OF SMART WORKING” – “The line followed so far by the Government, thanks to vaccinations, the green pass and the super green pass, has made the maximum level of openness of economic, social and cultural activities fully compatible with the highest level of health security. request for smart working by some public employment unions, we remind you that current legislation and rules already allow ample flexibility to organize both attendance and remote work, both in public and private work “. To underline this, the note from the Department of Public Administration. “Public administrations, in particular, on the basis of the guidelines recently approved with the consent of all (trade unions, government, central and local administrations), can decide on staff rotation, allowing agile work even up to 49% on the basis of a monthly schedule, or longer “.
“We also remind you that the majority of public employees (school, health and law enforcement officers, who represent about two thirds of the total 3.2 million) are subject to the vaccine obligation and, in a very large majority, they are required to be present. In light of the great flexibility recognized to individual administrations and the small minority of public employees who could actually work from home, the invocation of smart working for all public employment is therefore incomprehensible. ‘all at home’ as experienced, in the absence of vaccines, during the first phase of the pandemic in 2020, linked to the general lockdown and the closure of all economic activities and all services, except essential ones. This is not the current situation “, concludes the Department of Public Administration.
CGIL: “WE RISK OF LET US FIND UNPREPARED IN A NEW WAVE” – “Unfortunately, we risk once again being caught unprepared in a new wave of the pandemic. We have long been asking for a greater tightening of vaccines and now in such a complicated situation we need to organize ourselves by increasing smart working where possible”. This was stated by Natale Di Cola, secretary of the Fp Cgil of Rome and Lazio, who spoke this morning to the microphones of the program “Italy has awakened” on Radio Cusano Campus. “In recent months – he underlines – precious time has been lost in organizing and therefore we are not yet ready to ensure that smart working can be achieved in the best possible way. Things have gone well where there is an administration that has made a process of technological innovation and have gone wrong where these systems are obsolete. In the future, the issue of smart working will be addressed as an opportunity which, if well organized, in addition to being effective for the company, can also lend a hand to Village”.
PA UNION WRITES APPEAL TO DRAGHI – “In these days of exponential increase in infections it is worrying that we insist on postponing or delaying the relaunch of agile work as a measure of prevention from contagion. Smart working is the most incisive tool, derived from the pandemic emergency, to reconfigure and reshape the organization and functioning of the Public Administration, with the aim of avoiding slowdowns in the implementation of projects and of dispersing the 25 billion euro of European funds “. Thus in the letter sent to the Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, signed by Tiziana Cignarelli, general secretary of Flepar, the trade union of professionals of the PA, and of Codirp, the Confederation that represents public management.
“Reducing the distance between public administrations and between public administrations and citizens – reads the letter – also means guaranteeing the proximity of services and decision-making centers to citizens and businesses, strengthening the structures in the territories and production districts. We hope for directives and ministerial monitoring that avoids the reduction of the Action and Organization Integration Plans (Piao) in the umpteenth formalistic bureaucratic fulfillment, with no effective internal and external impact on the Administrations and not as long as it is governed by national and supplementary collective bargaining. costs of the ‘state machine’, favoring evaluation criteria based on results “.
“It is necessary to build on the experiences of the past year in which it was seen that through smart working it was possible to provide services even during the lockdown (see in this regard the productivity data which have even increased for the offices that were technologically more prepared). Smart working – it is written in the letter sent to the premier – is an opportunity for organizational modernization, not just a work tool; it is a way to reduce unnecessary movements of people with an advantage for the environment and in this moment for the community “.
“It is necessary to take – continues the letter – the necessary organizational decisions without prejudice by exploiting the opportunities offered by smart working quickly to obtain the same preventive effect that the reduction in travel had last year. The EMA on 6 December and the WHO on December 14th they clarified the importance, in addition to the vaccine, of other timely prevention measures, including teleworking. As early as mid-December, therefore, we were surprised that measures were neglected that become essential in the workplace, even more so. sad that they were neglected in the public administration, which should be an example of safe work, also in order to preserve the functionality and continuity of services in the interest of the community “.
The letter closes with a proper and real appeal to Draghi: “We ask you for an act of responsibility that cannot be conditioned by reasons other than the health and social emergency, the prevention and safety of workers, even more so when it is It has been shown that they are combined with the efficiency of public and private services ».
PREGLIASCO: “USEFUL RETURN TO SOLID SMART WORKING” – But there are not only trade unions to agree with the return of ‘agile work’. Several experts in favor, such as the virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco, professor at the University of Milan: “In my opinion, a massive return to smart working would be absolutely useful”, he says on the subject at Adnkronos Health.
“The greatest danger with the Omicron variant – explains the expert – is now the ease of contagion, therefore the number of people around must be reduced. The high number of cases, even if it is true that for the most part they are trivial – he concludes – it can become a problem “.
M5S ASKS RESTORE – Yesterday, in a press release, the senators of the 5 Star Movement in the Constitutional Affairs commission Vincenzo Garruti, Maria Laura Mantovani, Gianluca Perilli, Vincenzo Santangelo and Danilo Toninelli, the request M5S arrived: “We are in the midst of a fourth wave which, although it is less alarming from a health point of view, it cannot be underestimated. For this reason, as soon as we have the possibility, as 5 Star Movement we will present amendments to restore emergency agile work in the Public Administration “, they affirm.
“Agile work already starting from the first wave of the pandemic – they comment – has proven to be a very useful tool to avoid the paralysis of public offices and services to be provided to citizens, while avoiding dangerous gatherings in the offices of the Public Administration and reducing traffic in cities and the presence of citizens on public transport. The great work carried out by Minister Dadone during the Conte II government made it possible to perfect a way of working inevitably born in conditions of extreme emergency. Minister Brunetta is wrong in reducing it to the bone today the use of agile work, in its role, has the duty to understand and make the most of the enormous potential of digital, thanks to which the way we all work is changing. And there is no turning back from this direction “.
“The inefficiencies and incorrect behaviors of those who take advantage of smart working to evade their duties must not be an alibi, it is the task of the Department of Public Administration and the managers of the offices to make the work organization plans work, starting with the Pola” , they conclude.
Source-www.adnkronos.com