News and clarifications on vulnerable workers
- Studio Piceci
- February 8, 2021
- Reading time: 4 min
Subject: News and clarifications on vulnerable workers, mandatory quarantine with active surveillance, home confinement with active surveillance, special leave for working parents
Updates on this matter are provided below, based on regulatory developments and in light of recent clarifications from INPS (the Italian National Social Security Institute).
1) Protection granted to employees in the private and public sectors who are in particularly vulnerable situations
Article 26 of Decree No. 18/2020 (known as Cura Italia) provides that individuals with a recognized severe disability (Article 3, paragraph 3, of Law No. 104/1992) or in the presence of risk conditions determined by immunosuppression, the effects of cancer or the performance of related life-saving therapies, duly certified by disability recognition (Article 3, paragraph 1, of Law No. 104/1992), the entire period of absence shall be treated as hospitalisation upon presentation of a medical certificate.
In the absence of the disability recognition report referred to in Article 3, paragraph 1, of Law No. 104/1992, the risk condition may also be certified by the medical-legal bodies operating within the local health authorities with territorial jurisdiction. The protection in question has been granted to workers considered vulnerable for periods of absence from work between March 17, 2020, and October 15, 2020. An amendment to Decree No. 104/2020 (the so-called August Decree), inserted during the process of converting the text into law, amended the aforementioned Article 26 on vulnerable workers, providing for these types of workers, from October 16, 2020, until December 31, 2020, the exercise of work activities in agile mode, including 'through the assignment of different tasks within the same category or area of employment, as defined by the
current collective agreements, or the provision of specific professional training activities, including remotely.
Law No. 178/2020 (the so-called Budget Law for 2021) extended the protection provided for vulnerable workers for the period from January 1, 2021, to February 28, 2021, reiterating that work should normally be carried out remotely, including through the assignment of different tasks within the same category or area of employment, as defined by the collective agreements in force, or the performance of specific professional training activities, including remotely. The equivalence of documented absences of workers considered 'vulnerable' to hospitalisation becomes a possibility in all cases for those workers who cannot work remotely, even through the assignment of different tasks within the same category or area of employment. Those affected are all employees in the public and private sectors who are in a fragile condition, with the exception of those enrolled in the Separate Pension Scheme.
2) New developments from January 1, 2021, for workers in quarantine with active surveillance or under home confinement
With regard to private sector workers in general who are in quarantine with active surveillance or under house arrest with active surveillance, for the purposes of recognition of sickness benefits by INPS, the Budget Law has
eliminated, as of January 1, 2021, the obligation for the attending physician to indicate on the certificate "the details of the measure that gave rise to the quarantine with active surveillance or the home confinement with active surveillance,"
previously planned for the year 2020.
3) Special leave for working parents
Article 22-bis of Decree Law No. 137/2020 (known as the Ristori Decree), included when it was converted into law, provided (in favor of working parents) for paid leave to be used to refrain from work during the period of suspension of face-to-face teaching for second and third year classes of lower secondary schools located in the so-called red zones.
Similar leave has been provided for throughout the country, for parents of children with severe disabilities (e.g. Article 4, Law No. 104/1992), during the period of suspension of in-person teaching in schools of all levels, for which the suspension of in-person teaching has been ordered, or who are cared for in day care centers for which closure has been ordered by a measure adopted at the national or local level or by individual schools.
To obtain the benefit, you must submit a specific online application to INPS, which may also cover periods of leave prior to the date of submission, provided that they do not predate November 9, 2020.
Only working parents are eligible for special leave.
Self-employed parents and parents enrolled in the separate pension scheme are therefore excluded.
Leave may be taken by one or both parents, but never simultaneously during the same days of suspension of in-person activities; it is not necessary for the parent to live with the child.
In any case, leave may only be taken if it is not possible to work remotely.
Duration of leave and amount of compensation