By order no. 24977/2022, filed on 19 August 2022, the Italian court of Cassation held that a notice sent by the Employer to the Unitary Workplace Union Structure (RSU) regarding the staff holiday plan cannot replace the individual notice. The notice, the Court ruled, must indicate, for each addressee, the time period in which s/the is to go on holiday, taking account of the legitimate needs of each employee, so that they can organize at best and thus achieve the purpose holidays are to serve, namely to recover the worker’s psycho-physical energy.
The Court found that in the case at hand, among other things, the employees had been forced to take holidays split in a certain number of hours per day, and were informed of it only after that the holidays had been used, specifically when examining the payslip. In this regard, it was confirmed that the employees in question have a valid right to damage compensation. Therefore, the Court has rejected the company’s appeal also on these grounds and decided on the costs.
By decision 9/2022, the Court of Siena declared that the employer’s conduct prohibiting the centralisation of union leaves under the collective agreement (CCNL) predominantly or exclusively in favour of one or more members of a labour organisation is not anti-union if this causes intolerable absence from work. The Court ruled that freedom of association does not exempt a union from the general duties of political, economic and social solidarity. Like any other person, an LO must perform contracts in good faith, and the right to use union leaves – granted by the CCNL through a ‘sum of hours’, without stipulating anything about the manner of such use – meets precisely this limit of good faith. The conduct of the union which, by concentrating all or part of the leaves in favour of one or more members, causes them not to carry out their work obligations for a considerable period of time, cannot be considered in conformity with the principles of loyalty and fairness. In the Court’s view, the employer’s conduct is, on the other hand, anti-union when it does not allow the members of the RSU to enjoy equal parts of the leave in relation to the number of hours allocated
On 17 May 2022, the interministerial decree of the previous 29 March was published, implementing Art. 46 of Legislative Decree no. 198/2006 ( “Equal Opportunities Code”). It defines the procedures for drawing up the two-yearly Equal Opportunities report for public and private companies with more than 50 employees. These companies must draw up the report electronically, by filling in the form in Annex A of the decree online. A computer app is available on the portal of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies to manage the report. The report deadline is 30 September 2022 for the 2020-2021 two-year period. The deadline for the following two-year periods will be 30 April of the year following the end of each two-year period. At the end of the IT procedure, if no errors or inconsistencies are detected, the application issues a receipt certifying that the report has been correctly drawn up. The employer must forward a copy of the report, together with the receipt, to the Unitary Trade Union Representatives (RSU). The computer application will be operational from 23 June 2022.
Other related insights:
The Fondo Nuove competenze – FNC (New Skills Fund) was introduced by article 88, paragraph 1, of the “Relaunch Decree” (Decree Law no. 34/2020) and subsequently amended by Article 4 of the August Decree (Decree Law no. 104/2020).
It is a tool with a twofold purpose introduced during the emergency – to allow workers to acquire new or increased skills and the tools needed to adapt to further labour market conditions and support companies adapting to the new organisational and production models brought about by the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency.
The FNC, set up at the Agenzia Nazionale delle Politiche Attive del Lavoro – ANPAL (National Agency for Active Employment Policies), provides resources for employee training hours costs, including the relevant social security and welfare contributions, subject to a rescheduling of working time.
By accessing the FNC the employer has an immediate advantage, i.e. a significant reduction in labour costs, with the possibility of combining a reduction in working hours with training, unlike other support methods, such as the redundancy fund.
The fund is open to all private employers who have stipulated collective agreements to reschedule working hours due to changes in the organisational and productive needs of the company.
The measure includes employees of companies eligible for the FNC financial contributions or staff leasing agency workers, for whom working time is reduced in exchange for participation in skills development courses under the collective agreement, but with the same salary considering the changes introduced to the labour market by the Covid emergency.
To access the FNC it is necessary to sign a trade union agreement at the company or regional level with the most representative trade unions nationally or the company trade union representatives (RSA) or the unitary trade union representative body (RSU) which identifies:
In addition to the agreement with the trade unions (OOSS), it is necessary to draw up a project for skills development, which identifies the learning objectives, training recipients and providers, and course methods and duration.
Once the trade union agreement and the training project have been finalised, the companies can submit applications to ANPAL, requesting the reimbursement of labour costs (wages and contributions) for the training hours (up to a maximum of 250 hours per worker, to be carried out within 90/120 days).
It should be noted that the implementing Interministerial Decree of 9 October 2020, published on the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies website on 22 October, stated the deadline for signing collective agreements to access the Fund was 31 December 2020.
As announced by Minister Catalfo, there will be an extension that will make this interesting tool usable in 2021.
Other insights related:
