Three days paid leaves per month to look after relatives with serious disability can be asked also for relatives and relatives in-law until third degree if the disabled person has not a spouse or parents who can look after him/her. With the note 19 of June 26, 2014, Labour Ministry clarified that this is the only requirement and it is not significant that there are other relatives or relatives in-law of lower degree who could look after the disabled person. The employee may require three days leaves for looking after a third degree relative or relative in-law, if the parents or spouse of the disabled person are in the following conditions: (a) are 65 years old at least, (b) are disabled persons as well, and (c) died or missing. “Missing” means not just the natural or juridical absence, but any other condition certified by the judicial authority or other public authority, such as divorce, legal separation or abandonment. Third degree relatives are great-grandfathers, grandnieces and grandnephews, uncles, nieces and nephews, while third degrees relatives in-law are the relatives (of the same degree) of the spouse. Moreover, the Ministry specified that it is not possible to allow leaves to more than one employee for looking after the same disabled person: this is the so called “unique representative” introduced by the art. 24 of Law 183/2010, which has deeply modified the matter.
