Prepared by Francesca Tironi, Giulia Spalazzi, Marco Bove and Antonio Giardina
On 29 July 2022, Legislative Decree no. 104/2022 (the so-called “Transparency Decree”) was published in the Italian Official Gazette. The Decree, in transposing EU Directive no. 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions amends Legislative Decree no. 152/1997 and introduces new disclosure obligations for the employer at the time of signing the employment contract as well as, upon written request of the employee, review and update obligations for all employment contracts already in place as of August 1, 2022, resulting in the need for employers to amend them no later than sixty days from the date of the request, under penalty of administrative sanctions.
Employment contracts and employment letters must therefore contain a series of information regarding the employment relationship, including the length of the probationary period, training for employees, leave, scheduling of normal hours of work and any conditions relating to overtime and its remuneration.
The new communication obligations – focus
Specifically, pursuant to the new Transparency Decree, the public and private employer is required to communicate to the employee:
- the identity of the parties;
- the workplace; in the absence of a fixed or predominant place of work, the employer must indicate that the employee is employed in different places, or is free to determine his place of work;
- the registered office or domicile of the employer;
- the classification, level and qualification attributed to the employee or, alternatively, the characteristics or summary description of the job;
- the starting date of the employment relationship;
- the type of employment relationship, specifying in the case of temporary relationships the expected duration of the same;
- in the case of employees employed by a temporary agency, the identity of the user companies, when and as soon as it is known;
- the length of the probationary period, if any;
- the right to receive training provided by the employer, if any;
- the duration of the leave for holidays, as well as of the other paid leave to which the employee is entitled or, if this cannot be indicated at the time of the information, the methods of determination and use of the same;
- the procedure, form and terms of the notice in the event of termination by the employer or employee;
- the initial amount of the remuneration or in any case the remuneration and the relative constituent elements, with an indication of the period and methods of payment;
- the scheduling of normal working hours and any conditions relating to overtime work and its remuneration, as well as any conditions for shift changes, if the employment contract provides for the organization of working hours in whole or in largely predictable;
- the collective agreement, including corporate agreements, applied to the employment relationship, with the indication of the parties who have signed it;
- the Authorities and Institutions that receive the social security and insurance contributions due from the employer and any form of social security protection provided by the employer;
Methods for fulfilling the new information obligations
In order to correctly fulfill the aforementioned information obligations, the employer is required to deliver to the employee, at the time of the establishment of the relationship and before the start of the activity, the individual employment contract drawn up in writing or, alternatively, the copy of the communication of the establishment of the employment relationship referred to in article 9-bis of the decree-law 1 October 1996, n. 510, converted, with modifications, by law 28 November 1996, n. 608.
The employer shall in any case provide the employee with any information not mentioned in the hiring letter or a copy of the communication of the establishment of the employment relationship within 7 days of starting work.
Certain information may be provided at a later time and in any case no later than 30 days from the beginning of the work activity, specifically:
- the duration of the leave for holidays, as well as of the other paid leave to which the employee is entitled or, if this cannot be indicated at the time of the information, the methods of determination and use of the same;
- the collective agreement, including company agreements, applied to the employment relationship with the indication of the signing parties;
- Authorities and Institutions that receive social security and insurance contributions paid by the employer and any form of social security protection provided by the employer;
- the procedure, form and terms of notice in the event of termination by the employer and the employee;
- the right to receive training provided by the employer if provided;
- in the case of employees employed by a temporary work agency, the identity of the user company when and as soon as it is known.
Subjective scope of application of the new discipline
The new regulation, summarized above, applies:
- to employment contracts, both fixed-term and open-ended, including part-time contracts;
- to temporary employment contracts, both fixed-term and open-ended;
- to intermittent employment contracts;
- to collaboration relationships with predominantly personal and continuous performance organized by the principal;
- to contracts of coordinated and continuous collaboration;
- to contracts with occasional services;
- to maritime workers and fishing workers, without prejudice to the special regulations in force on the subject;
- to domestic workers;
- to employment relationships of public administrations and those of public economic entities.
Temporal scope of application of the new regulations
- The provisions of the Transparency Decree apply to newly established employment relationships and to all employment relationships already established as of August 1, 2022. The employer or principal, upon written request of the employee already employed as of August 1, 2022, is required to provide, update or supplement within 60 days the information subject to the reporting requirements.
Penalties
- In case of failure, delay, incomplete or inaccurate fulfillment of information obligations, INL shall apply the administrative penalty of a fine from a minimum of €250 to a maximum of €1,500.
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