Apprenticeship and right to take precedence: the clarifications of the Ministry

With its Ruling no. 2 of 9 August 2017, the Ministry for Labour and Social Policies has replied to the question posed by Confcommercio on the correct interpretation of the right to take precedence of workers hired under a temporary contract. In particular, the requesting organization asked whether the following constitutes infringement of the right to take precedence of a temporary worker: (i) continuation of the employment relationship in place with the apprentice upon expiry of the related apprenticeship period; (ii) hiring of a new worker under an apprenticeship contract. In response to the first question, the Ministry has clarified that since apprenticeship is a permanent employment contract, violation of the right to take precedence shall be ruled out given that, for the purpose of the exercise of this right, the time of hiring of the apprentice is relevant, which occurs in fact the moment the apprenticeship contract starts and not during the normal continuation of the work relationship at the end of the training period. In response to the second question, the Ministry has specified that the hiring of a new worker under an apprenticeship contract constitutes violation of the right to take precedence of a temporary worker only if said temporary worker has already obtained the professional qualifications required for the job forming the scope of the apprenticeship contract, due to previous temporary employment contracts. This latter instance suggests that the professional experience of a temporary worker should be carefully considered in order to avert the risk of infringing the legislation on right to take precedence.