Reclassification of apprenticeships? Possible if there is a breach of training obligations

The Court of Cassation, with ruling No. 16571/2018 has once again returned  – confirming an already consolidated trend in legal literature and case law concerning lawfulness – on the topic of reclassification of the apprenticeship relationship in an employment relation under an open term contract, if the employer’s obligations to provide training was breached. In particular, the Court has pointed out that in the matter filed for review, the necessary professional training was lacking, that is the professional training provided to the employee in-training required to allow him to become qualified. On the matter, the Court states once again that in an apprenticeship contract the fundamental matter is specifically represented by the obligation of the employer to provide effective professional training with the goal of providing to the trainee a professional qualification. And since this breach, being of no little importance, leads in the opinion of the Court of Cassation to the transformation right from its inception of the apprenticeship contract into an open term contract, with consequent payment to the employee of all the contributions and salary differences. This means that the priority role that the training undertakes respect to the work activity excludes that this specific contractual form be deemed suitable a relationship having as its objective the performance of elementary or routine tasks, not integrated by an effective training both theoretical and in practice, under penalty of reclassifying the relationship into an open term contract since the very beginning.