The Italian Budget Law 2023 (Italian Law No 197/2022) was published in the Official Journal (Gazzetta Ufficiale) on 29 December 2022 and comes into force on 1 January 2023 and introduces the following important initiatives in the employment law field.
Agile working: as of 1 January 2023, the categories of workers with the right to agile working will be reduced. Until 31 March 2023, only so-called ‘vulnerable’ persons will have this right, workers with children under 14 being excluded.
Parental leave: an extra month of optional, 80% paid parental leave is introduced. The leave may be taken by either parent, alternatively, until the child is six years old.
Recruitment incentives for permanent contracts: for the whole of 2023, there will be incentives for the recruitment of permanent hires with a contribution threshold of up to EUR 8,000 for those who already have a fixed-term contract and in particular for women under 36 and for citizenship income recipients.
Productivity bonuses: as of 2023, the taxation of productivity bonuses will decrease from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. The preferential taxation applies to variable bonuses not exceeding EUR 3,000.
Temporary income: the possibility of using temporary employment services is extended by increasing the maximum limit of remuneration that can be paid by each employer from EUR 5,000 to EUR 10,000 per year. These temporary services may also be used for agricultural activities, as well as by employers with up to ten employees on permanent contracts, instead of five.
Vouchers: employment vouchers for temporary services are back, with a limit rising from EUR 5,000 to 10,000, for temporary services used in certain sectors, including agricultural activities, the hotel industry, personal care activities, and domestic work.
Pensions: there is a lot of news on the pensions front. The renewal for 2023 of the Early Pension (Anticipo Pensionistico – ‘APE Sociale’) and the extension of the Woman’s option 2023 (Opzione donna 2023) are confirmed, the latter with some limitations on the prerequisites with respect to the original measure (only for caregivers, women with disabilities and employees of companies in crisis). Introduction of the new ‘Quota 103’ whereby the pension prerequisite is reached at the age of 62 and after 41 years of contributions, but only applies to 2023. Finally, a new pension revaluation system for the years 2023 – 2024 is also in the offing.
Self-employment: the flat-rate regime, which provides for taxation at a rate of 15 per cent, will apply to revenues up to EUR 85,000, instead of the current EUR 65,000.
Other related insights:
Covid-19 and right to the use of parental leave: INPS provides the first indications
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, has recently announced that the company intends to permanently integrate remote working into its working practices, albeit with a hybrid approach, e.g. three days in the office and two days remotely.
These statements highlight the growing interest in remote working, a system that many companies were forced to try out for the first time during the lockdown and which has now become a real revolution. In many cases, it has become a structural choice due to its undoubted advantages, from a better work-life balance to reducing the stress of travelling to work.
A NEW NORMALITY
At present, according to INAPP (National Institute for Public Policy Analysis) data, 54% of employees in large companies work wholly or partly on a remote basis; furthermore, according to an analysis conducted by the Milan Polytechnic Observatory and Randstad Research, remote working may involve 3 to 5 million workers in the coming months. The path should be the one traced by the CEO of Google: according to a recent study by Fondirigenti, people will prefer to split the week in two or to alternate days in the office and remote work, so as not to sacrifice social relations and physical interaction with their colleagues. According to Vittorio De Luca, managing partner of the De Luca & Partners law firm, specialised in labour law and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), “in the near future, remoteworking policies will become more and more a rule and no longer just an exception”. remoteworking policies have also been promoted by the law: the Riaperture Decree has extended until 31 July the possibility for employers to use this instrument with a unilateral act, i.e. without having to sign an individual agreement. This deadline should be extended until 31 December also for the private sector, thus aligning it with what is already in place for the public administration. “However,” De Luca points out, “at the end of the emergency period it will be appropriate and necessary to regulate the relationship between the parties involved, i.e. employers on the one hand and workers (remote workers) on the other hand.”
THE PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED
Remote working was first introduced in the Italian system by Law 81/2017. Remote working, says De Luca, is defined in the law “as a new and flexible way of organising employment, with no exact definition of the place and time of work, providing that the activity can take place partly inside the company’s premises and partly outside, without a fixed location, though in compliance with the limits on maximum daily and weekly working time established by law and by the applicable national collective agreement. In order for this to happen”, he adds, “an agreement, strictly in writing (for the purposes of proof and administrative regularity), must be entered into by the company and the worker”. And it is precisely the release from spatial and temporal limits, notes the expert, “which, if not regulated in advance, might have negative consequences for both the employee and the employer, from both a professional/work and a social/personal point of view”.
“Indeed, remote working has made the time profile of the service not essential, placing the objectives and performances of the resources concerned at the centre”, explains De Luca. So that “it is of primary importance for employers to be able to check and assess the results of remote workers”, whilst also determining “the forms of exercise of the employer’s power, paying attention to the manner, purpose and content of the same”. There follows the need, he concludes, to “introduce agreements, accompanied by internal procedures and regulations, which govern these aspects, also instructing the worker on the use of work equipment and on company security and personal data protection”.
The COVID-19 emergency has awakened interest in remote or agile working, with the aim of limiting the spread of the virus and ensuring business continuity,.
In the emergency phase a simplified mode of remote working has been introduced: until the end of the epidemiological state of emergency, the remote working may be activated even in the absence of individual agreements.
If, therefore, there is no extension related to the emergency situation and the connected use of the simplified mode of agile work, after 31 July, it will be necessary to switch from the emergency remote-working to the ordinary one regulated by Legislative Decree no. 81/2017.
In addition, with the overcoming of the emergency phase, it is to be hoped that remote working recover the original spirit aimed at increasing competitiveness and a greater possibility of reconciliation of life and work.
Continue here to read the full version of the article in Italian language.
Source: Agendadigitale.eu
De Luca & Partners, for the special Guida al Lavoro (Employment Guide), describes the legalities of remote or agile working,
The Guida al Lavoro special offers an overview of the legislation and case law related to remote working as well as an interesting point for reflection on critical issues connected with remote working, an employment procedure that will become increasingly widespread in coming months and a form taken from the database of IlSole24Ore.
Continue to read the full version of the contribution (in Italian).
With the main goal of balancing private life and work, DDL 2233-B has been approved in its final version, which, in fact, governs the so-called remote work, that is the type of work performed outside of the employer’s premises and without specific requirements in terms of working hours. The intrinsic characteristics of remote work clearly imply a lower level of monitoring by the employer; this also applies to those elements that may have an impact on the health and safety of the worker. As a result, and without prejudice to the fact that the employer remains responsible for the health and safety of the worker, the law-maker established that the employer shall provide the worker and to the Workers’ representative, at least once a year, with a written information notice detailing the general and specific risks connected to performing a specific type of work while employed by the employer. On the other hand, the employer is made aware and becomes liable since he/she is expressly obligated to cooperate in implementing the preventive measures established by the employer to face the risks connected to the performance of the duties outside the workplace. However, the aforementioned requirements do not void the liability of the employer to guarantee the worker’s health and safety. In fact, unless exceptions are applied, please note that the employer must also follow the regulations established in the Consolidated Law on Safety (Legislative Decree 81/2008) applicable to the specific matters that characterise remote work.