The maneuver puts in place six tools to manage corporate crises. From the extension of the expansion contract to companies with at least 50 employees to the greater protections offered by solidarity contracts, from the fund for the early exit of workers of companies in crisis to the contribution exemption for their hiring, from employment transition agreements to an additional 52 weeks of cig for construction and industrial companies.
The government “toolbox”
The objective of the package of measures of the Minister of Labor, Andrea Orlando (and part of Mise), is to have a “toolbox” to manage corporate restructuring and transitions related to digitization and the green economy, considering that next year presumably it will return to normal and there will be no “parachute” of the redundancy block.
The expansion contract
Let’s start with the expansion contract. The legislation extends it to 2022 and 2023, expanding the field of application to companies with at least 50 employees, also calculated as a whole in the hypothesis of stable aggregation of companies with a single production or service purpose. They will be able to hire staff no more than 60 months after retirement (old age or seniority); reduce workers’ hours by using up to 18 months of Cigs, even if not continuous; plan new hires (1 out of every 3 exits for companies with over a thousand employees; for smaller companies, the collective agreement will define the relationship).
Solidarity through company bargaining
Companies can then stipulate solidarity contracts through company bargaining, reducing working hours to avoid, in whole or in part, redundancies. The ceiling of the average hourly reduction is raised from the current 60% of the daily, weekly or monthly hours of the workers involved in the solidarity contract to 80% from 1 January 2022. For each worker, the ceiling of the overall reduction percentage of the working hours currently set at 70% over the entire period is raised to 90% from January 1, 2023. The wage loss is initially determined by not taking into account the wage increases provided for by collective company agreements in the six months prior to the signing of the solidarity agreement. The salary integration treatment is reduced in correspondence with any subsequent salary increases occurring during company negotiations.
Contribution exemption
The third tool is the exemption from contributions, also envisaged in 2022 for the stabilization of young people under 36, extended to companies that hire permanent workers, regardless of age limits, of companies for which a discussion table is active for the management of corporate crises at the Mise business crisis structure. With 15 million, the cancellation of contributions for 36 months is financed, within 6 thousand euros per year.