DLP Insights

The so-called “Code of contracts”, contained in Italian Legislative Decree no. 81 which became effective 25 June 2015, dedicates the entire 5th section to the outsourcing of work, which has been reinforced in a context of a complete revision of the previous laws as per the Biagi Decree (Legislative Decree 276/2003). With the specific reference to the outsourcing of short-term work, the delegated legislator, on one hand has confirmed the “acausal nature” of the same without time limits (unlike the 36 months established for a short-term contract) and at the same time has introduced new bans. With this Reform, the user no longer has the option to use this type of work or layoffs or redundancy benefits in the event of a company crisis, which were all allowed previously.

The enactment of the legislative decree on the subject of overhaul of contract types has resulted in the repeal of the provisions of articles 61 – 69 bis of Italian Legislative Decree 276/2003.

The Legislative Decree on contracts passed by the Council of Ministers reforms article 2103 of the Civil Code including the possibility for employers to unilaterally change a worker’s job duties within the same level and contractual legal employment category. Thus it will no longer be necessary to perform an evaluation on the equivalence of the duties for the purpose of clarifying the legitimacy of ius variandi.

In the new provisions for temporary work contracts, contained in the implementing legislative decree of the Jobs Act on the overhaul of contract types, the referral to applicable “objective cases” governed by Ministerial Decree of 23 October 2004 was not spared. It in turn referred to activity of a non-continuous nature already identified by a Royal Decree of 1923.

The code of contracts brings some significant changes to laws regarding part-time work. To cite only the most important ones, in terms of overtime the reform states that the employer’s request for performance of overtime may regard more than just single days, but also weeks or months and, even without specific collective provisions, the employer can ask the employee to perform additional work compared to the reduced hours, for up to 25% of the agreed upon weekly hours of work.