DLP Insights

Collective dismissals are governed by Law 223/91, which excludes from its application Executives (“Dirigenti” in the Italian parlance), according to art. 4 par. 9. Not only the legislator, but case-law and legal doctrine as well considered that collective dismissals discipline is not applicable to Executives, due to the peculiarity of the employment relationship, based on a strong trustworthy bond between them and the employer and the not applicability of the restrictive dismissals rules provided for by Law 604/66.

The fixed term contracts, entered into in order to replace an absent employee, benefit of better treatments. In case of replacement of an employee absent for maternity leave, the employer, who has no more than 19 employees, is entitled to a 50% reduction of the relevant social security contributions.

The Law no. 78/2014 came into effect on May 20, 2014 and, consequently, the fixed-term discipline changed three times in 60 days.

The Ministerial Decree of February 14, 2014, published in the Official Gazette no. 123 of 29 May 2014, has confirmed for this year the opportunity for employers to take advantage of the social security contribution reduction for 2013 bonuses provided by the second-level bargaining.

20% threshold does not apply to all fixed term contracts. The law provides for employment relationships which are exempted: (i) employers who have up to 5 employees can enter into one fixed term employment relationship;