Operational guidelines regarding the provisions on grounds for termination in fixed-term employment contracts
- September 16, 2021
- Reading time: 3 min
Subject: Operational guidelines regarding the amendment to the rules governing the grounds for fixed-term employment contracts introduced by the Sostegni-bis Decree
On September 14, 2021, the National Labor Inspectorate issued operational guidelines regarding the amendment—introduced by Decree No. 73/2021, converted with modifications into Law No. 106/2021 (the so-called “Sostegni-bis”)—to the rules governing the grounds for fixed-term contracts. We remind you that this Decree introduced, through Article 41-bis, an additional ground for entering into a fixed-term contract exceeding 12 months, which delegates to collective bargaining under Article 51 of Legislative Decree No. 81/2015 the authority to identify specific needs for entering into a fixed-term contract with a duration exceeding 12 months (but not exceeding 24 months).
This means that, as of July 25, national, regional, or company-level collective agreements entered into by trade unions that are comparatively more representative at the national level, as well as company-level collective agreements entered into by their company-level union representatives or by the unified union representation, are permitted to identify new circumstances under which it is possible to enter into a fixed-term contract with a duration exceeding 12 months. The regulation requires that the requirements be specific and, therefore, identify concrete scenarios, without using generic formulations (for example: reasons “of a technical, productive, or organizational nature”) that require further clarification within the individual contract.
The amendment introduced by the Sostegni-bis Decree does not only apply to the signing of the first contract with a term of more than 12 months; it also affects the rules governing contract renewals and extensions.
Given that a new paragraph “1.1” to Article 19 of Legislative Decree No. 81/2015, which provides for the possibility of entering into fixed-term contracts with an initial duration exceeding 12 months in accordance with the needs identified through collective bargaining, only until September 30, 2022, the Inspectorate emphasized that the time limit applies to the first fixed-term contract between the parties; Furthermore, it specified that the deadline of September 30, 2022, refers to the formalization of the contract, which may provide for a duration of the employment relationship extending beyond that date, subject to the overall limit of 24 months.
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