Italian Draft Law No. 25/2017: Goodbye to vouchers and news on tenders

Italian Law decree No. 25 dated 17 March 2017, published on the Official Gazette, has revoked the regulations on ancillary work, voiding completely the instrument already weakened by the latest legislative interventions applied by the amendments to the Jobs Act. Now new legislative policy instruments will have to be designed to fight unreported employment and at the same time ensure the accessibility to casual work. Meanwhile, there are many applicative uncertainties, especially concerning the limitations of use of the vouchers purchased until Friday, 17 March and usable by 31 December. For now, on 21 March, a note from the Ministry of Labour intervened to clarify that vouchers, in the transition period, shall be used “in compliance with the regulations on the matter of casual work established by the regulations being revoked by the decree”. The same decree has also introduced news in the matter of tenders. Specifically: (i) the abolition of the benefits of prior discussion, introduced by the Fornero Law, with the consequence that the client can be attacked even before the contractor and (ii) the cancellation of the possibility, for the social partners to modify the rules of joint liability at the time of second level negotiation in a manner that differs from what is established by the law.