The decrees issued during the emergency provided for the suspension of payments due in March, April, and May 2020. Employers included in certain categories outlined in the decrees could benefit from this suspension.

For any employers who benefited from the suspension, the deadline for payments was postponed to 16 September 2020.

Payment of the suspended social security contributions can be made in a single instalment or through an instalment plan.

Article 97 of Decree Law no. 104/2020 (the “August” Decree) allowed instalments for the payment of suspended sums, without applying sanctions or interest, based on the following:

• 50 per cent of the sum due in a single instalment by 16 September 2020, or, an instalment plan, up to a maximum of four equal monthly instalments, with payment of the first instalment by 16 September 2020.
• the remaining 50 per cent of the sums due can be paid in up to a maximum of twenty-four equal monthly instalments, with payment of the first instalment by 16 January 2021.

We would like to inform you that as from January 1^st, 2020 new tax obligations have been introduced on companies involved in procurement – services contract and subcontracting contracts.

In detail, on the basis of the aforementioned law provision, the Principal of such contracts shall:

• require to each supplier and sub-supplier the delivery of the so called F24 proving the payment of the taxes and social security contributions due for all the employees involved into the service contract;
• require to each supplier and sub-supplier to be provided with a file summarizing all the information necessary to carry out the verification of the correctness of the payment made;
• verify the correctness of the calculation made by each supplier and sub-supplier of the taxes and social security contributions due for all the employees involved into the service contract.

On the other hand, each supplier or sub-supplier shall:

• make the payment of the taxes and social security contributions due for all the employees involved into the service contract;
• within 5 working days from the payment, provide the Principal with a file summarizing all the information necessary to carry out the verification of the correctness of the payment made and with the so called F24 proving the payment of the taxes and social security contributions due for all the employees involved into the service contract.

The client companies, on the other hand, will have to:

• request the contracting company for a copy of the payment proxies relating to the payment of the withholding taxes made on the remuneration of the workers directly employed in the contract or labor intensive contractual relationship;
• suspend the payment of the fees accrued in the event of non-transmission or for omitted or insufficient payments up to 20% of the total value of the work or for an amount equal to the amount of unpaid withholding taxes, notifying the Revenue Agency by 90 day deadline.

However, companies in possession of a specific certification issued by the Italian Revenue Agency may be exempted from the aforementioned obligations. In order to obtain such certification, a company should:

• be in business from at least 3 years;
• be compliant with all the fulfilments and declarations provided by Italian law (e.g. IRAP, VAT, withholding taxes);
• have made, in the last three years, payments of taxes equal to an amount of at least the 10% of the volume of revenues resulting from the tax declarations;
• have no ongoing executive assessments or debit notices in relation to taxes, IRAP and social security contributions exceeding EUR 50.000,00.

We remain, as usual, at your complete disposal for any further clarifications you may need.

The “Voluntary Resignations” app made available on 2 January 2018 by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies for voluntary dismissals and consensual termination of the employment relationship is now active.
Thanks to this app, citizens and authorised parties will have the possibility to access the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies procedure and submit the electronic form to the employer.
To access, citizens will have to be registered to the SPID, the Digital Identity Public System introduced on the Ministry’s service platform on 19 May 2017. On the other hand, authorised parties will have the possibility to use their login credentials to access the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies portal.

The “Voluntary Resignations” app is available both for Android and Apple phones.

“INAIL’s mandatory requirement to submit a notification concerning all accidents in the workplace with a prognosis exceeding one day after the day of the accident, has become effective on 12 October 2017.

Therefore, all employers must submit the notification of the so called “short-term accidents” to the Agency within 48 hours from receipt of the medical certificate from the employee; this is done solely for statistical purposes of the SINP (the national information system for the prevention of accidents in the workplace).

Failure or delayed submittal shall be subjected to an administrative fine ranging from EUR 548.00 to EUR 1,972.80.”

It is reminded that in force of the provision established in article 16, in the draft renewal agreement of the National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL) for Metalworking and Mechanical Engineering and the installation of plants signed on 26 November 2016, effective from 1 October 2017, integrative health care assistance is extended to all employees by registering to the MètaSalute Fund. In particular, registration to the employees’ fund is open to all open-term contract employees, not under their probationary period, including part-time employees, internship employees and those with a fixed-term contract longer than 5 months.

Effective from October, for all the aforementioned employees – except by expressed written withdrawal by the interested party – a yearly contribution in the amount of 156 euros (split in 12 monthly amounts of 13 euros each) shall be paid by the employer.

INPS issued official memorandum No. 115 dated 19 July 2017, providing application instructions regarding the provision established in article 7 of the Law 81/2017 which – by integrating and modifying the provisions of art. 15 of Legislative Decree 22/2015 – expanded the protection of the unemployment benefit “DIS-COLL” in the case of unemployment occurred from 1 July 2017.

In particular, the addressee of the DIS-COLL indemnities are long-term consultants, also by project, as well as – exclusively related to unemployment occurred effective from 1 July 2017 – research assistants and doctoral students doing research registered exclusively to INPS’ Separate Management Fund, not retired and with no VAT registration, who lost their job involuntarily.

Therefore, effective from 1 July 2017, the rate applied for the calculation of the contribution related to the Separate Management Fund– excluding directors and company auditors –  is as follows:

• 32.72%, to which the additional rate of 0.51% must be added for individuals registered exclusively to the Separate Management Fund;
• 24% for individuals registered to the Separate Management Fund and holder of pension or insured to other mandatory pension plans.

For further clarifications, feel free to contact us.

HR Capital S.r.l.

Pursuant to the repeal of the so called “ancillary casual labour” implemented through the Law Decree 25/2017, lawmakers introduced the so called “occasional employment” provision.

In particular, art. 54-bis of the Law Decree 50/2017, introduced at the time of the conversion of the Law 96/2017, regulated the two different methods of use of such services:

–              the so called “Libretto Famiglia” (Family Handbook), for natural persons, and

–              the so called Occasional Employment agreement, for professionals, self-employed individuals, entrepreneurs, associations, foundations and other private entities.

The Decree specifies that the use of the Occasional Employment agreement is not allowed to employers who have more than five employees hired under a full-time open-term agreement.

Regarding compensation, the regulation clarifies that it can be agreed upon by the parties respecting the minimum wage rate of 9 euros per hour of work. In addition, it has been established that the amount of daily compensation shall not be less than EUR 36 even if the daily provision of service is less than four hours.

In addition to all of the above, users shall bear the following costs:

1. IVS contribution to INPS’ Separate Management Fund (33% of the compensation);
2. INAL insurance premium (3.5% of the compensation).

In addition to the total payments issued by the user, the charges related to the management of the occasional employment agreement and issuing of the compensation to the provider apply at the rate of 1%.

Finally, the amounts paid as compensation for occasional employment can be paid alternatively through:

–             F24 form specifying as the reason the so called CLOC;

–              electronic payment by direct deposit to the bank account or debit/credit card, managed through

               the pagoPA system and accessible through the INPS portal.

INPS, with official memorandum No. 107 dated 5 July 2017, clarified the procedure that each user shall follow to make use of this type of agreement.

For further clarifications, feel free to contact us.

HR Capital S.r.l.

The major concern of small and medium sized businesses is represented by the management requirements tied to corporate welfare, which often limits the development of wide ranging policies. However, there are a number of solutions to lighten up the burden of the employer without limiting the quality of employees’ welfare initiatives. A good labour consultant can assist clients also on this matter. Read Salvatore Vitiello’s interview with Corriere Economia.

Salvatore Vitiello has contributed to the drafting of the Workbook No. 68 for the Work Committee of the Order of Chartered Accountants and Auditors.

Download the full version of the workbook here.

On 26 November 2016 the draft renewal agreement of the National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL) for Metalworking and Mechanical Engineering was approved. Among the major news: (a) a four-year agreement, from 2016 to 2019; (b) effective from January 2017, recognition of the inflation ex post per year and no longer ex ante, thus with no wage increases for 2016 as partial compensation; (c) effective date of salary increases in June of each year; (d) effective from 1 January 2017, absorption of the individual increases according to the minimum rates recognised after said date, except in the case they were issued with a non-absorption clause, as well as of the fixed collective elements of the compensation established by corporate bargaining after such date, excluding the amounts related to the provision of work; (e) one-off payment of 80 euros at gross, along with the salary of the month of March 2017; (f) corporate performance bonuses fully variable; (g) effective from October 2017, recognition of free integrative health care to all employees and their dependants; (h) strengthening of complementary social security, increasing the corporate contribution, effective from June 2017, to the Cometa fund from 1.6% to 2% of the compensation; (i) simplification and improvement of regulations (for example, parental leaves, paid permits, working hours, travel and transfers); (l) corporate welfare introduction: EUR 100 from June 2017, EUR 150 from June 2018 and EUR 200 from June 2019. The draft agreement will be submitted for a workers’ referendum planned for mid-December.

The government is currently considering the possibility to expand, in 2017, the performance bonus from the current 2,000 euros (2,500 in the case of equal involvement of the company’s employees in the work) to 3-4 thousand euros, applicable also to middle management and a portion of non-senior management, with widening of the income bracket to benefit from reduced taxation from 50 thousand euros, currently in force, to 70-80 thousand euros gross, per year. This implementation would be accompanied by a review of the matters part of the corporate welfare agreement, which now benefit from full tax exemption, to essentially reduce application to health, social security and education.

(Il Sole 24 Ore, 3 September 2016)

With the issuing of the official memorandum INPS No. 90 dated 26 May 2016 the so called “assisted part-time” for soon-to-retire employees comes full circle, as introduced by the Stability Law of 2016 and implemented by the Ministry of Labour with Decree dated 7 April 2016.

In particular, the law established the possibility for private sector employees to enjoy a benefit in exchange for a reduction of work hours (to be agreed upon with the employer), as long as they reach the minimum age established to file for old-age pension by 31 December 2018.

Access to the so called “assisted part-time” will be applicable to employees hired under an open-term agreement:

• whose date of birth is no later than May 1952;
• who have accrued seniority contributions to AGO or substitute methods or exclusive of the same of at least 20 years;
• who enter into an agreement with his/her employer for a minimum of 40% and a maximum of 60% reduction of contractually-agreed working hours.

In these cases, the employee shall be entitled to:

• in the monthly payslip and at the employer’s cost, an all-inclusive amount – which does not concur to form part of the employee’s income – equal to the social security contribution for the pension plan,

as well as

• payment of an additional non-cash social security contribution, thus to be borne entirely by the social security agency.

Instead, the aforementioned ministerial decree and the official memorandum INPS No. 90/2016 defined the procedures and the administrative requirements that the parties (in particular the employer) must implement to access the “assisted part-time”.

In particular, while the employee is exclusively required to submit the electronic request to INPS, the employer must meet a series of requirements, among which:

• submitting the agreement signed with the employee to the competent Territorial Labour Office;
• filling out and submitting an electronic request;
• filling out the remuneration/social security contribution returns in compliance with the instructions provided by the social security agency.

The intention of the law was to make the social security agency to act as leverage to give access to the job market to the new generation and to the rejuvenation of the work-force in Italy.

In particular, in compliance with the contractual tools made available by the law, the transformation to part-time of an employee close to old-age retirement could favour the hiring of a young apprentice or intern (according to the extra-curricular scheme), while maintaining for the former a tutoring role in preparation to replacement at the time of retirement.

20 July 2016

Salvatore Vitiello – Labour Consultant

Nunzio Lena – Associate

Labour Consulting Division – HR Capital S.r.l.

Yesterday, Confesercenti and Filcams-Cgil, Fisascat-Cisl and Uiltucs, signed the agreement for the renewal of the national collective bargaining agreement related to the services and distribution sectors. Regarding the financial aspects, the agreement calls for a gross increase of 85 euros per month for the fourth level.

(Il Sole 24 Ore, 13 July 2016, page 16)

The severance indemnity revaluation coefficient for the month of June is 0.750%.

(ItaliaOggi, 14 July 2016, page 38)

The «increasing protections» in the new agreement apply to hirings occurred after 7 March 2015. For all others, article 18 still applies, representing a dual system with many contradictions.

It is a dual-system for dismissals, where law applies double standards depending on the categories of employees. This is the situation that, according to Vittorio De Luca, attorney at the De Luca & Partners law firm, occurred in the Italian job market after the approval of the Jobs Act, the welfare reform implemented by the Renzi government. As those who followed the matter know, the Jobs Act effectively voided article 18 of the Workers’ Statute. Effective last year, the obligation to reintegrate the worker applies only in limited cases, for example when the employee is dismissed by the company for discriminatory reasons (for example due to racism).

In the majority of the cases, (for example when the employee is dismissed for disciplinary reasons), the reintegration obligation is no longer applicable: the employee has only the right to a monetary compensation, proportional to the seniority, even if the dismissal is found to be unlawful. Thus, a new employment contract has been created, known as «increasing protections» because it establishes dismissal protections that become increasingly stronger over time.  However, this new agreement is applicable only to hirings that took place after 7 March 2015. For those employees who were already employed before said date, the rules of the old article 18 are still valid, since they were in force before approval of the Jobs Act.

It is specifically for this reason that, according to De Luca, the last labour reform gave life to a dual system. “The paradoxical consequence is,” says De Luca, “that two employees of the same company, dismissed for the same reason and at the same time, may be entitled to two radically different protections, based on the date in which they were hired». In short, in the case of unlawful dismissal, those who were employed prior to the Jobs Act have the right to be reintegrated in their job position at the contrary of a peer hired after 7 March 2015. This limitation to the reform emerged also from a survey carried out by De Luca & Partners, interviewing more than 200 companies. The companies interviewed, even if they expressed a positive opinion on the Jobs Act, pointed out that the major obstacle to hiring in Italy is still represented by the labour cost which is still too high.

WEAK SPOTS IN SHORT:

1. Apply article 39

The Jobs Act, in the opinion of Aldo Bottini is not enough, but it finally allows applying article 39 of the Constitution on the relations with the unions.

1. Downgrading to lower roles 

Stefano Trifirò attacks the downgrading to lower roles which leads to a loss of opportunities for the “demoted” employee

1. Double standards

Vittorio De Luca criticises the dismissal system that has become dual after the Jobs Ad , thus creating unpleasant inconsistencies

HR Capital, who has been a point of reference in the world of employment consulting and payroll processing services for more than 30 years, has launched the restyling of its logo and website. The new communication strategy emphasises the new organisational model designed to offer customers maximum efficiency and efficacy, in line with the traditional characteristics of HR Capital: expertise, high quality services and the ability to understand and support business processes. To know more, keep up to date by following us on LinkedIn.

HR Capital, for more than 30 years a reference point in the field of labour consulting and payroll management is launching a restyling of its logo and website. The new communication strategy underlines the new organisational structure with the goal of offering to clients maximum efficiency and effectiveness under the flag of HR Capital’s consolidated skills: knowledge, high-quality service and ability to understand and support corporate processes. To learn more, keep updated by following us on LinkedIn.

Corporate welfare and social security contributions tax benefits. Salvatore Vitiello talked about the topic on the occasion of the first “HR Breakfast” organised by De Luca & Partners on 26 May 2016.

The Ministry of Labour website published, on 16 May 2016, the ministerial decree dated 25 March 2016 which governs the issuing of performance bonuses and company profit sharing at a reduced tax rate. Read here the text of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies’ decree.