Smart working: private and public sector compared

It is useless to deny it: digitalization is changing our lives and, obviously, the labor law too. New technologies not only transform market strategies and firm organization, but also increase the range of the implementing rules on working. It is not necessarily a bad thing because digitalization could provide new job opportunities by combining work-life balance. Indeed, this is positive as long as the flexibility of work has adequate safeguards. An interesting example to analyze is the so-called smart working, provided by the art. 18 of the Law no. 81/2017, that is part of the wide Italian labor market reform named Jobs Act. In particular, the use of the smart working in Public Administrations – encouraged by the law no. 124/2015 on the reform of the organization in the public sector – could be one of the most important challenges of Human Resources Management in Italy. This proposal aims to analyze how the smart working has been introduced in Italian public administrations and how much it has contributed in improving the well-being of public workers. Indeed, the paper intends to examine the weaknesses and strengths of this tool by analyzing the rules, the collective agreements and the empirical data through the first practical applications of the smart working in the Italian Public Administrations.