- Working Time
- Back to the Past
- Other Changes
The Italian government recently approved two significant pieces of legislation – Decree-Laws 93/2008 and 112/2008 – which affect numerous aspects of employment and labour law, annulling certain provisions introduced by the previous government and introducing new regulations.
Working Time
The decree-laws introduced changes to working time which particularly affect overtime and night work as follows:
- Decree-Law 93/2008 provides that for a trial period of
six months from July 1 2008, overtime pay
earned by employees on an annual salary of EUR30,000 or less
is subject to a lower tax rate of 10%.
- Decree-Law 112/2008 provides that working activity must
be considered night work if it is performed
for at least three hours a night (ie, for a total of three
hours or more between 11:00pm and 6:00am) for at least 80
days a year.
- Decree-Law 112/2008 also provides that employers are no
longer obliged to inform the relevant labour office of the
night work and overtime work performed by their
employees.
Back to the Past
Decree-Law 112/2008 annulled the provisions introduced by the previous government on resignation and so-called 'jobs on call'.
The decree-law annulled Law 188/2007, which required employees to offer their resignation on specific forms distributed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Since June 25 2008 employees have once again been able to resign by letter or oral statement (unless a written resignation is required under the applicable national collective agreement).
The decree-law also reintroduced the 'job on call' contract, which allows an individual to perform occasional work for an employer in response to specific, occasional requests. It is one of the most flexible types of contract available and was originally introduced by Decree-Law 267/2003 (known as the Biagi Reform) before being repealed by Law 247/2007.
Other Changes
Decree-Law 112/2008 also introduced also new provisions on:
- temporary employment agreements;
- training agreements (abolishing the minimum duration of
two years); and
- pensions (allowing payments in addition to remuneration
for working activity with effect from January 2009).
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