Out-of-court procedures

The agreement reached within the assisted negotiation procedure has the same legal regime of non-appealability provided for by Article 2113, paragraph 4 of the Italian Civil Code for settlements reached before one of the so-called ‘protected venues’.

The Assisted Negotiation consists of an extrajudicial procedure aimed at establishing the good faith and fairness cooperation of the parties to settle a dispute through the assistance of their respective lawyers. As of October 10^th, 2022, as provided by the Italian Legislative Decree No. 149/2022, the Assisted Negotiation procedure has been extended also to labour disputes, thus representing a new ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) tool in addition to the other forms of settlement already provided for by Article 2113, paragraph 4 of the Italian Civil Code.

The attempt at conciliation in employment disputes is optional. Even if not obliged by law, before filing, a person who intends to bring a legal action may either:

• initiate an attempt at conciliation before the Conciliation Committee set up at the Labour inspectorate (ITL); or
• use the conciliation procedures provided for by collective contracts and agreements (trade union conciliation).

The only cases in which an attempt at conciliation is mandatory concern:

• disputes arising from contracts that have been certified;
• dismissals for objective justified reasons for workers hired before 7 March 2015 in companies with more than 15 employees (procedure under art. 7, Legislative Decree no. 604/1966)