State-regional agreements on exceptional lay-off schemes

In enactment of the provisions of the 2009 Finance Act (Law 203/08), the “anticrisis strategy” (Decree Law 185/08, converted to Law 02/09) and the so called “incentives decree” (Law Decree 05/09, converted to Law 33/09), and as a consequence of the understandings between the State and Regional Governments on 12 February, a number of framework agreements have been signed between the Regional Governments, social parties, Labour Ministry and INPS (National Institute of Social Insurance) to implement exceptional lay-off schemes on all forms of employment contracts.



The amount to be injected into the schemes is eight billion euro, two thirds of which borne by the State and one third by the Regions. Lombardia, Liguria, Emilia Romagna, Lazio and Tuscany are the Regions that have already entered into agreements with the above authorities.



Note that one of the most important new elements introduced in 2009 is that envisaging the direct payment by INPS of exceptional redundancy payment fund (CIG), provided that employees sign the declaration confirming their willingness to participate in training schemes or, if employment is terminated, confirming their acceptance of adequate job offers.