With the issuing of the official memorandum INPS No. 90 dated 26 May 2016 the so called “assisted part-time” for soon-to-retire employees comes full circle, as introduced by the Stability Law of 2016 and implemented by the Ministry of Labour with Decree dated 7 April 2016.

In particular, the law established the possibility for private sector employees to enjoy a benefit in exchange for a reduction of work hours (to be agreed upon with the employer), as long as they reach the minimum age established to file for old-age pension by 31 December 2018.

Access to the so called “assisted part-time” will be applicable to employees hired under an open-term agreement:

• whose date of birth is no later than May 1952;
• who have accrued seniority contributions to AGO or substitute methods or exclusive of the same of at least 20 years;
• who enter into an agreement with his/her employer for a minimum of 40% and a maximum of 60% reduction of contractually-agreed working hours.

In these cases, the employee shall be entitled to:

• in the monthly payslip and at the employer’s cost, an all-inclusive amount – which does not concur to form part of the employee’s income – equal to the social security contribution for the pension plan,

as well as

• payment of an additional non-cash social security contribution, thus to be borne entirely by the social security agency.

Instead, the aforementioned ministerial decree and the official memorandum INPS No. 90/2016 defined the procedures and the administrative requirements that the parties (in particular the employer) must implement to access the “assisted part-time”.

In particular, while the employee is exclusively required to submit the electronic request to INPS, the employer must meet a series of requirements, among which:

• submitting the agreement signed with the employee to the competent Territorial Labour Office;
• filling out and submitting an electronic request;
• filling out the remuneration/social security contribution returns in compliance with the instructions provided by the social security agency.

The intention of the law was to make the social security agency to act as leverage to give access to the job market to the new generation and to the rejuvenation of the work-force in Italy.

In particular, in compliance with the contractual tools made available by the law, the transformation to part-time of an employee close to old-age retirement could favour the hiring of a young apprentice or intern (according to the extra-curricular scheme), while maintaining for the former a tutoring role in preparation to replacement at the time of retirement.

20 July 2016

Salvatore Vitiello – Labour Consultant

Nunzio Lena – Associate

Labour Consulting Division – HR Capital S.r.l.

Yesterday, Confesercenti and Filcams-Cgil, Fisascat-Cisl and Uiltucs, signed the agreement for the renewal of the national collective bargaining agreement related to the services and distribution sectors. Regarding the financial aspects, the agreement calls for a gross increase of 85 euros per month for the fourth level.

(Il Sole 24 Ore, 13 July 2016, page 16)

The severance indemnity revaluation coefficient for the month of June is 0.750%.

(ItaliaOggi, 14 July 2016, page 38)

The «increasing protections» in the new agreement apply to hirings occurred after 7 March 2015. For all others, article 18 still applies, representing a dual system with many contradictions.

It is a dual-system for dismissals, where law applies double standards depending on the categories of employees. This is the situation that, according to Vittorio De Luca, attorney at the De Luca & Partners law firm, occurred in the Italian job market after the approval of the Jobs Act, the welfare reform implemented by the Renzi government. As those who followed the matter know, the Jobs Act effectively voided article 18 of the Workers’ Statute. Effective last year, the obligation to reintegrate the worker applies only in limited cases, for example when the employee is dismissed by the company for discriminatory reasons (for example due to racism).

In the majority of the cases, (for example when the employee is dismissed for disciplinary reasons), the reintegration obligation is no longer applicable: the employee has only the right to a monetary compensation, proportional to the seniority, even if the dismissal is found to be unlawful. Thus, a new employment contract has been created, known as «increasing protections» because it establishes dismissal protections that become increasingly stronger over time.  However, this new agreement is applicable only to hirings that took place after 7 March 2015. For those employees who were already employed before said date, the rules of the old article 18 are still valid, since they were in force before approval of the Jobs Act.

It is specifically for this reason that, according to De Luca, the last labour reform gave life to a dual system. “The paradoxical consequence is,” says De Luca, “that two employees of the same company, dismissed for the same reason and at the same time, may be entitled to two radically different protections, based on the date in which they were hired». In short, in the case of unlawful dismissal, those who were employed prior to the Jobs Act have the right to be reintegrated in their job position at the contrary of a peer hired after 7 March 2015. This limitation to the reform emerged also from a survey carried out by De Luca & Partners, interviewing more than 200 companies. The companies interviewed, even if they expressed a positive opinion on the Jobs Act, pointed out that the major obstacle to hiring in Italy is still represented by the labour cost which is still too high.

WEAK SPOTS IN SHORT:

1. Apply article 39

The Jobs Act, in the opinion of Aldo Bottini is not enough, but it finally allows applying article 39 of the Constitution on the relations with the unions.

1. Downgrading to lower roles 

Stefano Trifirò attacks the downgrading to lower roles which leads to a loss of opportunities for the “demoted” employee

1. Double standards

Vittorio De Luca criticises the dismissal system that has become dual after the Jobs Ad , thus creating unpleasant inconsistencies