Updates on urgent economic and fiscal measures

Subject: Updates on urgent economic and fiscal measures to protect jobs and address urgent needs

We are pleased to outline below some important new developments in the economic and tax fields aimed at protecting employment:

Update on Emergency Wage Subsidy

In its Notice No. 4034 of November 18, 2021, INPS published the first guidelines regarding the social safety net measures applicable during the continuation of the employment relationship, 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 related to the epidemiological emergency and a freeze on layoffs for economic reasons.”

The INPS portal is now ready to receive applications for wage supplementation.

Private employers may submit applications for the Ordinary Allowance and the Exceptional Wage Supplement for employees on their payroll as of October 22, 2021, for a maximum duration of 13 weeks between October 1 and December 31, 2021, without paying an additional contribution. This benefit is available to employers who have already been granted the full 28-week period referred to in Support Decree No. 41/2021; Private employers in the textile industry, the manufacture of clothing, leather goods, and furs, and the manufacture of leather and similar articles, identified according to the ATECO 2007 classification of economic activities with codes 13, 14, and 15, may submit, for employees on the payroll as of October 22, 2021, an application for ordinary wage supplementation benefits for a maximum duration of 9 weeks during the period between October 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, without payment of an additional contribution. This benefit is available following the expiration of the period authorized under the Sostegni bis Decree No. 73/2021 (which, as a reminder, is 17 weeks during 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 have been recalculated at 844 million euros, against which the payment of the ordinary allowance is also guaranteed, while the resources for the alternative solidarity funds (for the crafts sector and temporary employment agencies) have been recalculated at 700 million euros.

For the duration of the benefit period, the private employers mentioned above are prohibited from initiating collective dismissal procedures under Law No. 223 of 1991, as well as—regardless of the number of employees—from terminating employment contracts for just cause, with the suspension of ongoing procedures referred to in Article 7 of Law No. 604 of 1966 (the employer’s declaration of intent to proceed with dismissal for objective justifiable cause and notification to the Labor Inspectorate, etc.), except in the following cases:

• 1) permanent cessation of business operations following the Company’s liquidation without any continuation, even partial, of its business operations;

• 2) in cases where, during the liquidation process, there is no transfer of a group of assets or business operations within the meaning of Article 2112 of the Civil Code;

• 3) a company-level collective agreement, entered into by the trade unions with the highest level of representation at the national level, providing incentives for the termination of employment, limited to employees who opt into said agreement;

• 4) Corporate bankruptcy.

Updates on Parental Leave

Under Article 9 of Decree-Law No. 146/2021, the legislature provides that, until December 31, 2021, an employee with a child under the age of 14 living in the same household may, in alternation with the other parent, take leave 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 the child’s SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as for the duration of the child’s quarantine following exposure, regardless of where it occurred. The same benefit is granted to parents of children with disabilities

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