With Circular No. 23/2014, the Ministry of Labour has enunciated the process for the granting of relief from social security contributions that, starting 21 March 2014, accompany solidarity contracts supported by the Extraordinary Redundancy Benefit Fund (CIGS). In order to obtain the benefit, interested companies must (i) carry out operations designed to enable productivity to be improved to an extent comparable to the relief, or (ii) implement an investment plan that permits the elimination of inefficiencies in management or the production process. In addition, the Ministry specified that the reduced contributions will apply for the entire term of the contract, up to a maximum of 24 months. The request for relief must be submitted, together with all other documents required to be attached thereto (such as copy of the contract and list of workers), to the Ministry and the National Institute for Social Security (INPS) within 30 days of the date of contract conclusion. For contracts already in existence, the deadline starts to run on 26 September 2014 (date of publication of the circular in question).