By laws no. 136 of December 17^th, 2018 (so called “Fiscal Decree”) and no. 145 of December 30^th, 2018 (so called “2019 Budget Law”), several news in the field of labour and social security law have been introduced.

The main changes in the two laws mentioned above are as follows:

• the tax credit for the training costs of employees in the technology sector, provided for in the National Industry 4.0 Plan (“Piano nazionale industria 4.0”), has been extended to 2019;
• the special social shock absorber (“Mobilità in deroga”) has been extended, up to a maximum of 12 months, in favour of workers who (i) have terminated the special lay-off fund (“Cassa integrazione guadagni in deroga”) in the period from December 1^st, 2017 to December 31^st, 2018 and (ii) do not benefit from the unemployment benefits;
• it has been provided an exemption for the two-year period 2018-2019 to the maximum duration limits of the extraordinary lay-off fund (“Cassa integrazione guadagni straordinaria”) and it has been granted an extension of the extraordinary lay-off fund having its reason in the short time work contract (“contratto di solidarietà”) up to the maximum limit of 12 months, under certain conditions;
• the criminal and administrative sanctions for illegal work and those related to safety at workplace have been increased, respectively, by 20% and 10%. Both above percentages are doubled where, in the three years preceding the ascertainment of the violation, the employer has been subject to administrative or criminal penalties for the same offenses.
• it has been introduced the obligation of the employer to give priority to requests for smart working made by working mothers, in the three years following the conclusion of the period of maternity leave, and by workers with disabled children;
• the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work will reimburse to the employer the 60% of the remuneration paid – up to a maximum of 12 months – to the disabled worker who is the recipient of a reintegration project, aimed at the job retention;
• it has been introduced an annual decrease of the social security contributions burden- up to a maximum of € 8,000 – for companies that will hire by open-ended contracts young people, graduates by June 30^th, 2019, with a mark of 110 cum laude and before the age of 30. The same scheme is also applied to those who had to obtain a PhD before the age of 34 as well as for the transformation of fixed-term contracts or part-time contracts;
• the incentives for apprenticeships for the qualification, the diploma and the higher technical specialization certificate have been extended in the following measure: € 5 million for the 2018; € 5 million for the 2019 and € 5 million from 2020;
• it has been introduced a reduction of the compulsory insurance rates of the employees provided by the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work.

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The Fiscal Decree entered into force on December 19^th, 2018, while the Budget Law on January 1^st, 2019.

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