Deployment of Telework in European Public Administrations

The case
Background and motivation
The Municipality of Rome started an experiment in telework practice involving 35 employees
from various professional frameworks and eight different administrative units in June 1996 after
a planning phase of six months, and finished it in December 1996. It was the first of its kind to be
carried out in an Italian public administration and converged two main interests:
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A research group (Innova Int., S3Acta, Fondazione ugo Bordoni, DS Graphics Engineering)
carried out an analysis and experimentation programme in Rome, namely Rome TraDe
Project (Traffic Decongestion Teleworking Programme), which is estimated as a useful
evaluation field of telework as an instrument to European Union environmental policies;
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The Municipality of Rome in conducting a telework pilot project within its own
organisation, is considered as an important institutional and technological precedent.
Regulations
Normative and contractual frameworks which govern municipal employment in Italy concede few
opportunities to telework. Therefore a special Municipal Council Resolution (n°2479/96)
addressed the approval and regulations of the telework experiment involving the head of
Municipal Personnel (senior staff). The resolution widely focused on similar experiments in other
European capitals, emphasising the pilot character of the initiative and the voluntary character of
participation. Within the Municipality of Rome a telework Support Committee was formed in
order to provide the co-ordination of the programme between managers of the units involved and
with the companies of the consortium.
The personnel department was involved in the programme as well. In fact, the head of personnel
and the area director made the decision to begin the experiment before the regulation was
approved, electing six officers from their department to participate in the experiment. Relations
established with union representatives were concerned with mediation and not with negotiation.