Updates on urgent economic and fiscal measures
- Studio Piceci
- November 23, 2021
- Reading time: 6 min
Subject: Updates on urgent economic and fiscal measures to protect jobs and meet pressing needs
Here we list some important economic and fiscal developments relating to employment protection:
News on emergency wage supplementation
In message no. 4034 of November 18, 2021, INPS published its initial guidelines on social safety net measures for ongoing employment relationships, as provided for in Article 11 of Decree Law no. 146 of October 21, 2021: "Wage supplementation benefits in the event of suspension or reduction of work due to events attributable to the epidemiological emergency and a freeze on dismissals for economic reasons."
The INPS portal is ready to receive applications for wage supplementation.
Private employers may submit, for workers employed as of October 22, 2021, applications for Ordinary Allowance and Exceptional Wage Supplementation, for a maximum duration of 13 weeks between October 1 and December 31, 2021, without paying additional contributions. This benefit is available to employers who have already been authorized for the full 28-week period referred to in Decree No. 41/2021. Private employers in the textile, clothing, leather, and fur industries, and in the manufacture of leather and similar products, identified according to the ATECO 2007 classification of economic activities with codes 13, 14, and 15, may submit, for workers employed as of October 22, 2021, an application for ordinary wage supplementation for a maximum duration of 9 weeks in the period between October 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, without payment of an additional contribution. The benefit is payable after the period authorized under Decree Sostegni bis No. 73/2021 (which, we remind you, is 17 weeks in the period between July 1 and October 31, 2021); The bilateral solidarity funds guarantee the payment of the Ordinary Allowance up to the limit of the allocated resources, which are recalculated at €844 million, on the basis of which the payment of the ordinary allowance is also guaranteed, while the resources for alternative solidarity funds (in the craft and temporary employment sectors) have been recalculated at €700 million.
For the duration of the treatment, the above-mentioned private employers are prohibited from initiating collective dismissal procedures pursuant to Law 223/1991, as well as, regardless of the number of employees, from terminating employment contracts for justified objective reasons, with the suspension of ongoing procedures referred to in Article 7 of Law 604/1966 (employer's declaration of intent to proceed with dismissal for justified objective reasons and notification to the Inspectorate, etc.), except in the following cases:
1) definitive cessation of business following the liquidation of the Company without any continuation, even partial, of its activities;
2) in cases where, during the liquidation process, there is no transfer of a set of assets or activities pursuant to Article 2112 of the Civil Code;
3) collective company agreement, entered into by the most representative trade unions at national level, to encourage the termination of employment, limited to workers who adhere to the aforementioned agreement;
4) Company bankruptcy.
News on Parental Leave
In Article 9 of Decree Law No. 146/2021, the legislator stipulates that until December 31, 2021, employees with children under the age of 14 living with them may, alternatively to the other parent, refrain from work for a period corresponding in whole or in part to the suspension of in-person teaching or educational activities, for the duration of their child's SARS-Cov-2 infection, as well as for the duration of their child's quarantine following contact anywhere. The same benefit is granted to parents with children with disabilities.