Ministerial clarifications on the new features of the Law "Collegato Lavoro"

News No. 12/2025

Hereby we would like to draw attention to the recent News that The Ministry of Labor has issued in order to provide guidance on the main interventions implemented by the legislature with Law No. 203 of December 13, 2024 (so-called Collegato lavoro).

In particular, the paper focuses on new developments in the areas of resignation by conclusive facts, labor administration, seasonal employment, probationary period and agile work communications.

Rules on termination of employment

Article 19 of Law No. 203 of December 13, 2024 amended Article 26 of Legislative Decree No. 151/2015, introducing paragraph 7-bis, which establishes the possibility for the employer, in case of unjustified absence of the employee protracted beyond the term provided by the company's CCNL applied or, in the absence of contractual provision, the absence is more than fifteen days, to activate the procedure of the so-called "resignation by conclusive facts," through the communication to be made to the territorially competent National Labor Inspectorate. Attached is a facsimile of the communication. The communication should be sent both to the Inspectorate and to the worker himself, in order to allow the latter to be able to exercise the right of defense provided for in Article 24 of the Constitution.

In this regard, it is specified, however, that the employer, as a result of the inspection findings, could be held liable, including criminally, for false communications made to the Territorial Inspectorate.

It is worth noting that several Collective Agreements attribute disciplinary consequences to prolonged unjustified absence, allowing the employer to proceed with dismissal, either for just cause or for justified subjective reason. In these cases, the guarantee procedure provided for in Article 7 of the Workers' Statute Law No. 330/70 is then activated. Thus in the case where the contractual provision of unjustified absence provides for the procedure of prior disciplinary dispute, it will be necessary to proceed with the procedure provided for in the CCNL, and not with "resignation by conclusive facts."

The Ministerial News also provides further clarification with respect to the telematic termination procedure initiated by the employer as a result of "resignation by conclusive facts," stipulating that it is rendered ineffective if the employee has previously submitted the telematic resignation.

Thus, in order to activate the "resignation by conclusive facts" procedure, the employer will first have to check whether the company's CCNL applied provides, and what it provides, about the worker's unjustified absences. After that, after a minimum period of absence of 15 days, or of the greater days of absence possibly provided for by the company CCNL applied, it will forward the request via Pec to the territorially competent Inspectorate, which will carry out all the verifications made necessary; it will also send a copy to the worker to make him aware of the activated procedure. The termination of the relationship will take effect from the date reported in the UNILAV form (which will be sent within 5 days from the confirmation of receipt of the communication by the Inspectorate), it being understood that the employer, for the period of unjustified absence, is not obliged to pay wages and related contributions.

If, however, the employee proves that he or she was unable to communicate the reasons for the absence (e.g., because he or she was hospitalized or due to force majeure), the termination effect will remain ineffective. Medesima condition will also be fulfilled when the Inspectorate finds that the employer's communication is untrue.

The regulations under consideration are not applicable in cases of consensual termination or resignation submitted by the employee during the period of pregnancy, or by the employee or worker during the first three years of the child's life, or in additional specific cases as better outlined in Article 55 of Legislative Decree No. 151/2001.

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