GUIDE FOR THE PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE SOCIO-LABOUR POLITICS IN THE. MODELO IRLANDA TRANSNATIONAL PARTNER COUNTRIES Part 1 – ITALIAN LABOUR LEGISLATION 1.1 Unemployment The unemployment status is recognized for persons without a job who are immediately available to work according to the procedures defined by the Employment Center having jurisdiction. The unemployment status can be: (i) Lost, in case of failure to appear without proper justification when called by the Employment Center or failure to agree with a suitable job-offer; (ii) Kept, after working in a job ensuring an annual income not exceeding the minimum personal income; (iii) Suspended, if a fixed-term contract or temporary work lasting less than 8 months is accepted, or 4 months for young people when the wage exceeds certain pre-set thresholds 1.2 The Employment Center The current Employment Centers, replacing the Employment Offices (formerly S.C.I.C.A ), fall under the responsibilities of the Provincial Authorities and are designed to provide a series of services specifically targeted to workers and enterprises and more precisely: − Reception − Guidance − Match between labor supply and demand − Pre-selection − Counseling − Assistance to the weaker categories In order to utilize the Employment Center's services and certify the employment status , it is necessary to register and declare the immediate willingness and availability to work. The starting-up of the various services is subject to regional and provincial regulations and can vary throughout the country. 1.3 Registration at the Employment Center The Employment Center reform has eliminated the ordinary and special employment lists as well as the 'employment record book'. This means that it is no longer necessary to be registered at the Employment Centre because the employers contact the worker directly except for the following cases: - Workers on mobility lists - Entertainment workers - The disabled who are registered in compulsory employment lists All of the non-employed or unemployed job-seekers, as well as employed persons seeking another job, who intend to utilize the services of the Employment Center, can – however - continue to register and declare their intention to promptly accept a job. The procedures for the registration of the data on the workers are: - The 'personal data' list Financiado por: Guía Itali Trento de fecha MARZO 2011. Ctra.de Ronda11, 1ºE 04004 ALMERÍA T:950621067 F:950 281331 [email protected] www. coexphal .es Página 1 de 24 - The 'professional record card' The procedures and documentation necessary for registration at the Employment Centre are subject to regional and local rules and can be different throughout the country. 1.4 Types of Employment − The Work-Entry contract (also providing for a training activity, and replacing the training/employment contract in the private sector) − The Supplementary and Occasional Employment contract − The 'Project-by-Project' Employment contract (replacing the Continuous and Co-ordinated Collaboration Employment contract) − Job-Sharing − Intermittent Jobs (Job On Call) − Staff-Leasing contract (it) (replacing the Temporary Employment contract) − Detachment or Secondment, in the private sector Amended some rules in the existing employment contracts, such as: − Apprenticeship − Part time work − Job contracting The labor market reform also involves the option of certification (it) to state that the employment contract fulfills all the requirements of law. No changes are introduced in the other types of employment which are not amended or abolished by the new law. The Italian labour law identifies subordinate work when the employee carries out their activity on the dependence of a principal and timing, tasks, and other aspects of the job are strictly established by both the employment contract and the employer (Title II of the Civil Code). Subordinates contracts have been individuated by the Code in the standard form of open-ended contracts, bounded by the described limitations on dismissals and timing of the contract. To this prevalent contractual type the law has along time also recognised: a) CO.CO.CO. (Contracts of Coordinated and Continuative Co-operation): - introduced in 1973 - new contractual forms which has the nature of para-subordinated labour (some characteristics of the employment relationship are proper of the autonomous nature of self-employed people and some other are linked to a dependency by the principal). b) Temporary Jobs: - in order to implement the diffusion of different contracts and give the market more flexibility (Law 196/1997 and Legislative Decree 61/2000); - the Biagi law (n. 276/2003) regulated the different kinds of flexible contracts; - Legislative Decree 66/2003 removed the limitations to the hourly working hours. Reforms has been developed in line with communitarian principles and norms, which weaken its pressure on national labour markets and deliver guidelines and objectives in order to coordinate employment policies of all State towards common characteristics. The decentralization of the public role of guardianship to the labour market, the implementation of the agencies for work placement, and the space given to autonomous and individual bargaining of contracts between employer and employees permitted to significantly reduce difficulties of hiring. 1.5 The Law no. 196 of 1997 (Pacchetto Treu) June 18th, 1997 - Law 196 on promotion of employment (the so called ‘Pacchetto Treu’). Financiado por: Guía Itali Trento de fecha MARZO 2011. Ctra.de Ronda11, 1ºE 04004 ALMERÍA T:950621067 F:950 281331 [email protected] www. coexphal .es Página 2 de 24 The general aim of the law: − to promote new employment opportunities; − to regulate more flexible labour relationships; − to create incentives for reducing working hours and making more flexible part-time contracts; − to reorganize vocational training by integrating the school system with the system of vocational training; − to establish a special plan for employment in the South Italy; − to reinforce instruments for converting illegal work to lawful work. Articles from 1 to 11 of the Law 196/1997 institutionalise and regulate temporary work. They firstly establish the intervention in the labour market of temporary employment agencies, which are authorized by the Government (article 2 define the characteristics of the agencies authorized to supply temporary work). The law provides a triangular relationship among: (i) the agency supplying temporary workers, which intermediates the employment of temporary workers from its staff client organizations; (ii) the temporary worker, whom the agency provides to a client organization for a predetermined period of time; (iii) the client organization, which receives the right to manage and control the worker. The relationship is then regulated by two different contracts: a) one for the supply of temporary labour between the agency and the client organization; b) one for the supply of temporary labour services between the worker and the agency. Temporary work employment contract, the agency employs the worker for a specified time span that corresponds to the duration of the work for the client organization or with an open-ended contract. With the open-ended contract: the worker remains at the disposal of the agency even in periods in which he is not working for a client organization. The temporary worker is required to carry out his activity in the interest of the client organization and under its control and direction. The agency is obliged to finance vocational training projects for temporary workers, and the minimum contribution established by law may be extended by the collective agreement. Agencies also provide integrative wages in order to cover worker’s income in periods when he does not work. The law provides that: • Temporary workers cannot be used for personnel with managerial qualifications and for jobs with little professional content. • They can only be applied for qualifications not ordinary in attendance in the firms, in the replacement of absent workers, and in all cases provided by trade unions and national collective agreement. • The client organization can use temporary job only if no collective dismissal involved workers having similar occupations in the last twelve months. • The contract must indicate—among other things—the reasons for recourse to temporary work and the main work conditions (place, hours, pay, date of employment, etc.). The omission of the written form of this contract gives rise to an open-ended employment contract. • Temporary workers can not exceed the percentage of workers employed by the client organization under an open-ended employment contract. Vocational training and training contracts are only partially affected by the Law. Vocational training is regulated (in Art.17) only at the first stage of a greater process of reform, directed to increase the quality of labour supply, facilitate the first contact between young people and enterprises, Financiado por: Guía Itali Trento de fecha MARZO 2011. Ctra.de Ronda11, 1ºE 04004 ALMERÍA T:950621067 F:950 281331 [email protected] www. coexphal .es Página 3 de 24 and help unemployed people. The law specifies further that two contracts persist under the priori law (Act 451/1994): 1. a contract of training for high or intermediate levels of qualification (with a maximum duration of 24 months); 2. a contract of training (with a maximum of 12 months) for young people (from 16 to 32 years). Both types of contract can at their end be converted in