The National Labour Inspectorate, with memorandum No. 290 dated 12 January 2018, published its opinion on the compatibility of training in an internship agreement with posting pursuant to article 30 of the Legislative Decree No. 276/2003. On this matter, the Labour Inspectorate does not see reasons against the possibility of making use of posting in internship relationship, without prejudice to meeting the requirements of law. In particular, regarding the existence of interest of the posted party, upon the expressed establishment of the posting in the individual training plan of the worker and the presence of an adequate tutor made available by the employer. Regarding the latter, the Inspectorate, in recalling what had already been stated by the Ministry of Labour in the official memorandum No. 40/2004, noted that (i) whenever the company employs an adequate number of specialised employees, it is not relevant their location within the production unit where the interns operate and (ii) this is valid also for “remote” training and “tutoring” activities. In these cases, the condition is that the tutor be able to ensure the integration between external and internal training, with the possibility to take on even just “a supervisory role regarding the fairness and quality of training carried out by the intern”.

With note No. 4833 dated 5 June 2017, the Italian Labour Inspectorate provided clarifications regarding the correct application of the Legislative Decree No. 136/2016 on the topic of transnational posting. With reference to the concept of “provision of services” the provision clarifies that such wide meaning term – which assumes the execution of temporary work activities in favour of a beneficiary located in Italy (that is the “receiving entity”) or a production unit of the foreign posting company present in Italy or at a client party – include tenders, sub-tenders and, more in general, any trade agreement having as its scope the exchange of services between companies located in different countries. Regarding the concept of the production unit of the foreign company posting in Italy, the Inspectorate specified that it must be a unit having a minimum level of organization of means and/or people and that, therefore, be an actual centre for handling relationships and legal situations related to the foreign entity. According to the Inspectorate, within the legitimate transnational posting cases fall those in which foreign workers are sent to Italy to work at a branch of the posting foreign entity or at another commercial entity (e.g. the “receiving entity”) located in Italy and that, subsequently, are engaged in Italy to carry out a tender at another client company. Lastly, the Inspectorate, on the one hand, excluded from the term “provision of transnational services” the activities carried out at temporary stalls on occasion of expos, fairs and events since a stall cannot be deemed a production unit, while on the other hand it included in the definition the activities to assemble and disassemble the stalls.