Labour Decree 99/2021 and COVID-19: employers support and employees protection measures

Decree-Law no. 99 of 30 June 2021 has been published in the official gazette and came into force on the same date. It provides for further urgent measures to support businesses and protect jobs, in relation to the COVID-19 emergency

Air transport and textile industries

For the air transport sector, from 30 June to 31 December 2021, an extension of 6 months of the extraordinary salary integration treatment for companies in crisis may be exceptionally granted, subject to an  agreement  with the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, with the participation of the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility and the regions concerned.
 
Employers in the textile, clothing, leather, fur industries and in the manufacture of similar articles which, as of 1 July 2021, suspend or reduce their work activity, may submit, for workers in force as of 30 June 2021, an application for the ordinary wage integration treatment and ordinary allowance for a maximum duration of 17 weeks from 1 July to 31 October 2021. No additional contribution is due for these treatments.
 
Applications for access to the treatment must be submitted to INPS, under penalty of rejection, by the end of the month following the month in which the period of suspension or reduction of work activity began. In the first phase of application, the deadline for submitting applications, under penalty of forfeiture, is set at the end of July 2021.
 
The above-mentioned employers in the extended textile sector are prohibited, until October 31, 2021, from initiating any procedures for the reduction of staff, and any pending procedures initiated after February 23, 2020, remain suspended, except for the cases in which the staff affected by the termination, already employed in the contract, is rehired following the takeover of a new contractor by virtue of law, national collective labour agreement or clause of the contract. Until 31 October 2021, employers are also precluded, regardless of the number of employees, from dismiss individually for objective reasons, and the related procedures underway at the Territorial Inspectorate of Labour (Ispettorato Territoriale del Lavoro) remain suspended.

Additional extraordinary wage supplementation treatment

Notwithstanding the above, other private employers suspending or reducing their work activity due to events related to the epidemiological emergency caused by COVID-19 and who are not allowed to apply for ordinary wage subsidies, are granted extraordinary wage subsidies for a maximum of 13 weeks until 31 December 2021.
 
Employers who apply for wage subsidies are precluded, for the duration of the wage subsidies used up to 31 December 2021, from initiating procedures for the reduction of staff and pending procedures initiated after 23 February 2020 are also suspended for the same period, except in the case where the staff affected by the termination, already employed in the contract, is re-employed following the takeover of a new contractor by law, by a national collective labour agreement or by a clause of the contract. These employers are also precluded in the same period, regardless of the number of employees, from dismiss individually for objective reasons and the related procedures underway at the Territorial Labour Inspectorate remain suspended.

Exceptions to the ban on dismissals

The ban on dismissal does not apply:
 

• in cases of termination of the employment relationship motivated by the definitive cessation of the company's activity, including as a result of the company's liquidation, without partial or total continuation of the activity,
• in cases where, in the course of the liquidation, there is no transfer of a group of assets or activities that may constitute a transfer of the business or a branch thereof, or
• in the event of a company collective agreement, entered into by the most representative trade unions at national level, providing an incentive to terminate the employment relationship, limited to employees who adhere to the aforementioned agreement.

Such employees are in any case entitled to the NASpI.
 
The prohibition also does not apply to dismissals in the event of bankruptcy, when the provisional exercise of the enterprise is not expected or its closure has been ordered.
 
In the event that the provisional exercise is ordered for a specific branch of the company, redundancies concerning sectors not included in the same branch are excluded from the ban.