1 May: the best of both worlds, hybrid work provision

The implementation of a hybrid regime seeks to ensure that work is done in such a way as to reconcile productivity and the worker's personal life.

The first of May is internationally recognised as Workers' Day, marking a historic milestone in the conquest of better working conditions and the assumption of essential rights and reform of the Labour Law.

Over the years, we have seen the adoption of measures that have been instrumental in labour relations, allowing for an affirmation of the principles of combating precariousness, promoting equality, as well as reconciling professional life with the worker's personal and family life.

The most recent example of this mechanism comes with the 2023 Decent Work Agenda, which did not disregard the trend towards digitalisation and the regulation of teleworking. In fact, even before 2023, the teleworking regime would have been implemented and recognised, having reached its peak due to, let's say, " major forces" in 2020.

Thus, at the beginning of the decade, the compulsory nature of teleworking due to the pandemic situation opened the door to a working system that seeks to combine "the best of both worlds": face-to-face and remote working.

Once the pandemic phase was over, the question arose as to whether the provision of "remote" work could continue when circumstances allowed it. In other words, the first requirement to guarantee the essentiality of the teleworking regime would be compatibility between the functions performed by the worker and their "remote" work. This functional element will then be the starting point for verifying a second geographical element which, by its very etymology, presupposes work being carried out in a space separate from the company's premises. However, the functional element loses all practical viability as soon as the activity performed by the worker presupposes the execution of physical tasks such as those performed by industrial or distribution workers. In a simple logical sense, it is easy to see why it is impossible to work remotely in these circumstances.

Recognising that it was admissible, some companies quickly realised the benefits of this system, just as workers realised the advantages, particularly in terms of reconciling work and family life.