1. Conference “Promoting uptake of paternity and parental leave among fathers for an equal share of child care"
“Regulatory and operational measures to promote flexible working arrangements for women and men in Italy”
Monica Parrella
Director General, Department for Equal Opportunities,
Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italy
17 May 2017, Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection, Vienna

10. Monica Parrella – Director General– http://www.pariopportunita.gov.it
“Regulatory and operational measures to promote flexible working arrangements for women and men in Italy”
Introduction
What is Smart Working?
The benefits
International and national data
Smart working in Italy – Best practices
Institutional/legal background
Focus on «parental and paternity leaves»
Initiatives of the Italian Department for Equal Opportunities
Challenges
Monica Parrella – Director General–

11. A revolutionary change in the
Introduction
The increasing spread of new digital technologies
The globalization of markets
Flexibility in work arrangements has become  increasingly relevant for:
employees and their ability to reconcile work and family life (both men and women)
Employers who are looking for new ways to  increase productivity, adapt to new 
technologies  and retain talents.
A revolutionary change in the
organization of work
Monica Parrella – Director General–

12. Monica Parrella – Director General– http://www.pariopportunita.gov.it
What is Smart Working?
A new approach, utilizing new technologies to redefine the organization of work by removing the traditional constraints related to physical space, working hours and tools, and based on greater workers' responsibility and respect of the expected outcomes.
Monica Parrella – Director General–

13. SMART WORKING
A innovative organization of work that involves a new management of time for both women and men, who will enjoy an increased work-life balance and quality of life.
Flexible working arrangements allow also male employees to have more time to spend for child care and the family tasks traditionally performed by their partners.

14. The benefits For employees For organizations Increased productivity
Improved work-life balance
Higher well-being
job satisfaction and motivation
For organizations
Reduced costs
Higher efficiency
Lower absenteeism
Improvement of engagement
For the community
Reduce of CO2 emissions
Improved urban mobility
Reduced energy consumption
Monica Parrella – Director General–

15. Monica Parrella – Director General– http://www.pariopportunita.gov.it
International data
Monica Parrella – Director General–

16. Monica Parrella – Director General – http://www.pariopportunita.gov.it
National data
In Italy, there are about 250,000 employees using flexible working arrangements: 31% of them are women and 69% men. 8%
17%
30%
2016
2015
2014
Percentage of large companies that adopt structured Smart Working projects
(Smart Working Observatory of the School of Management - Polytechnic University of Milan).
Monica Parrella – Director General –

17. Smart working in Italy - Best practices
Public sector
Private sector
Monica Parrella – Director General–

18. Institutional/legal background
The Italian Government has already carried out new actions to redesign the organization of work and experiment flexible working arrangements.
Public sector
Organizational measures for the implementation of teleworking and for experimenting innovative ways in organizing work and time within public administrations (art. 14 of Law No. 124/2015).
Private sector
A draft law that introduces new flexible working arrangements for employees of the public and private sectors is also currently being examined by the Parliament.
Monica Parrella – Director General –

19. Parental and paternity leaves among fathers
Length: 10 months of leave per family totally, maximum 6 months for each parent
If the father takes at least three months parental leave, the total length of the leave can be extended to 11 months, and he may extend his leave to 7 months
Earnings: 100% for the first month and 30% for the other months
It may be used until child is 12.
Parental leaves
Length: 2 days in 2017, extended to 4 days from 2018
Earning: 100%
It may be used until child is 5 months
Compulsory Paternity leaves
Length: 1 or 2 days
It may be used until child is 5 months (Optional leave for fathers is not extended for the year 2017)
Optional Paid Paternity leaves

20. Parental and paternity leave among fathers
A recent opinion poll on the topic (conducted by the Doxa Institute in March 2017) provided interesting results on the Italian case:
Only 52% of the sample knows about the possibility of up-taking compulsory paternity leave and only 2 new fathers out of 10 have used it.
70% of fathers declared that having this opportunity is useful: in order to ease the burden of mothers’ new tasks after the child birth (53%); and because child care is considered as an important moment in their life as a parent (44%).
8 fathers out of 10 would opt for a 100% paid compulsory leave for at least 15 days.
7 fathers out of 10 declared that paternity in their workplace is not sufficiently taken into account, and 90% of fathers would like to opt for part-time or smart working when children are little.

21. Source: National Institute of Social Security (INPS), Italy
Data on paternity leave among fathers in the private sector (September 2016)
Source: National Institute of Social Security (INPS), Italy

22. "Agile working for the future
Initiatives of the Department for Equal Opportunities - Presidency of the Council of Ministers
The project E.L.E.N.A.
“Experimenting flexible Labour tools for Enterprises by eNgaging men And women”
The agreement with the Department of Public Administration
"Agile working for the future
of PA”
Monica Parrella – Director General –

23. Monica Parrella – Director General – http://www.pariopportunita.gov.it
elena_euproject
ELENA EUProject
Objectives The project is aimed:
at better understanding and showing how promoting flexible working arrangements can deliver positive outcomes for both workers and companies.
promote the use of parental leave by men.
Activities
The carrying out of an innovative pilot experiment of a specific flexible working policy, which is tested in a large Italian company to assess, for the first time, the causal link between flexible working arrangements and outcomes.
The implementation of a specific communication strategy aimed at disseminating the project’s results and encouraging the use of parental leaves by working fathers.
Monica Parrella – Director General –

24. Monica Parrella – Director General – http://www.pariopportunita.gov.it
Challenges
A review of the companies’ organizational processes
A new corporate culture geared to the performance and expected results
Overcoming cultural obstacles through a greater awareness of companies and institutions on the topic
Promote the active involvement of enterprises, institutions, trade unions and the research world
Promoting paternity in workplaces in order to encourage fathers to take more leaves for a better balance of work and family life, and allowing greater sharing of care responsibilities 
Monica Parrella – Director General –

25. Thank you for your attention
“Regulatory and operational measures to promote flexible working arrangements for women and men in Italy”
Thank you for your attention
Monica Parrella
Director General, Department for Equal Opportunities, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italy