Work package, green light from the Government

The Council of Ministers, on the proposal of the President and the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, in the meeting of May 1st gave the go-ahead to a decree-law containing urgent measures for social inclusion and access to the world of work and a bill in the field of work.

Goals

The measures adopted through the urgency procedure of 1 May have multiple objectives:

• contract the tax wedge, for the contribution portion, towards employees with annual gross income of up to 35,000 euros;
• oppose poverty and social exclusion, especially for families where there are fragile individuals, minors or the elderly;
• support active employment policies, to ensure suitable training for those who are not employed but are able to carry out a job, as well as facilitate the matching between job supply and demand.

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Decree-law

These are the measures:

• reduction of the tax burden for workers, by raising, from 2 to 6 per cent, the partial exemption on social security contributions for invalidity, old age and survivors payable by employees from 1 July to 31 December 2023, and with the exclusion of the thirteenth while the exemption is 7 per cent if the taxable salary does not exceed the monthly amount of 1,923 euros, as well as an increase in the fringe benefit threshold to 3,000 euros for 2023 for employees with dependent children, and extension to widowed parents the increase in the single universal allowance already envisaged for families in which both parents are employed;
• introduction of a measure to combat poverty, which takes the form of an income supplement for families that include a disabled person, a minor or an over 60 person and who meet certain requirements relating to citizenship or residence permit application, to the duration of the residence in Italy and to the economic conditions, with the clarification that for those who can be employed (those aged between 18 and 59 and who do not fall within the categories identified as “fragile”), the forfeiture of the benefit for refusal of a full-time or part-time job offer, not less than 60 per cent of the full-time schedule and with a salary not less than the minimum wages established by collective agreements and which is, alternatively for an indefinite period, on the whole national territory or on a fixed-term basis, even on temporary contracts, if the place of work is not more than 80 km from the home;
• incentives of 60 per cent of salary for 12 months, in favor of employers who hire under 30s not included in training programs and registered in the NOP “Youth Employment Initiative”, which can be combined with the 100 per cent contribution exemption, for a maximum of thirty-six months, and with other incentives provided for by current legislation;
• ·variation of the reasons that may be indicated in contracts with a duration of between 12 and 24 months (including extensions and renewals), therefore fixed-term contracts may have a duration of more than 12 months, but not exceeding 24 months in the cases provided for by collective agreements, or for needs of a technical, organizational or production nature, identified by the parties, in the event of failure to exercise the collective agreement, and in any case by 31 December 2024, or to replace other workers;
• implementation of regulations on occupational safety, protection against accidents and inspection controls, also by setting up a fund at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies for the families of students who are victims of accidents during training activities.

Bill

Among the provisions of the bill:

• contribution for recruitment through the recognition, for bodies and organizations, of a contribution for each disabled person hired on a permanent contract between 1 August 2022 and 31 December 2023;
• changes in the field of work administration, eliminating the percentage limits relating to recruitments with an apprenticeship contract under temporary administration and the quantitative limits for permanent contracts for workers on the move and unemployed not in the agricultural sector;
• suspension of layoff benefits through the extension to employment relationships of a duration equal to or less than six months of the legislation already envisaged for those of longer duration, where it is envisaged that the worker is not entitled to integration only for working days carried out;
• the timing of the duration of the probationary period in the fixed-term employment relationship is set at one day of effective performance for every fifteen calendar days, at the same time specifying that this period cannot be less than two days;
• strengthening of the verification of evasion and violations in the contributory sector and of the collection of the omitted amounts and promotion of the spontaneous fulfillment of the contributory obligations;
• ·optimization of the INPS’s control and verification capacity, allowing official checks by consulting databases also of other public administrations;
• deferred payment of contributory debts by increasing the number of installments, envisaged for the payment of premiums, from 24 to 60 months;
• reconciliation, for social security purposes, of the insurance periods for employees, self-employed workers and freelancers, aligning the expected return with that offered by the contribution system, equal to the five-year average of the GDP growth rate.