Italian labor laws and regulations have become an incentive for foreign investors.
Legislative Decree 276/2003, known as the Biagi Law, introduced important changes in labor legislation, designed to increase the flexibility of the market and reduce unemployment. More specifically, it contemplates new types of contract that bring labor supply closer to demand and thus increase employment.
They include:
Job on call
On-call or intermittent work permits a company to call in the worker at any time, if particular production requirements make it necessary. The worker committed to respond to the call is entitled not only to compensation for the work performed, naturally, but also to an availability indemnity for the period when he/she is not called to perform any work. And during the availability period, the worker is not entitled to the other benefits given to company employees.
Intermittent work can be useful not only to meet production requirements but also to facilitate entry into the working world for the unemployed under 25 years of age and the return to work of those older than 45 expelled from the production cycle.
Job sharing
A single job position is shared by two or more persons, who perform their activity in different periods of the day (morning and afternoon part-time) or each working certain days of the week or even alternating weeks. All are still responsible for the overall performance of duties. Unless otherwise agreed, the termination of the employment relationship of one of the signatories results in termination of the entire contract.
The contract is governed by collective labor contracts.
Staff leasing
For particular technical-organizational needs contemplated by the law, companies can "lease" workers on an open-end basis from specialized agencies. The workers are employed by the agency and not by the companies that utilize them, which are responsible for the organizational aspects of the performance of duties.
Supplementary Work
So-called supplementary work is reserved to persons at risk of social exclusion or not yet in the labor market or who are about to leave it (unemployed for over a year, the disabled and persons in recovery communities, non-EU workers in the six months prior to losing their jobs, homemakers, students and retirees).
Supplementary work may concern only a few categories of work: small domestic or home assistance tasks; complementary teaching; cleaning and maintenance work; duties linked to sport, cultural or social events; emergency work occasioned by natural calamities
Inclusion contract
This contract is intended for young people 18 to 29 and socially-disadvantaged persons such as:
- long-term unemployed to age 32
- workers over 45 who lose their employment
- the disabled
- women residing in disadvantaged areas
The inclusion contract proposes to calibrate the professional skills of the worker to the actual needs of the company. This must be accomplished as part of an individual inclusion project that may be financed with funds for continuing education. It may last from 9 to 18 months and can be stipulated by: public entities; companies and groups of companies; consortia, foundations; professional, cultural or sports associations or research entities.
In the private sector, with the exception of contracts already stipulated and not yet expired, the work/training contract has been replaced by the inclusion contract.
Apprenticeship
The aim of this work situation is to achieve professional qualification. Apprentices are trained both on the job and through courses outside the company, which may be considered part of their compensation, while the other part is a wage equal to a percentage of that received by qualified workers at the same level. The wage is that established in the national collective labor contracts for the individual worker categories.
Professional training contract
Participation in a professional training course can enable workers to gain a qualification with which to enter the labor market more easily and keep up-to-date on new aspects of that market, in constant transformation.
Professional training is an instrument that can meet the requirements of various persons:
- the young, for whom it may represent completion of their scholastic and/or university education and the key to entry into the labor market
- companies that require adequately prepared personnel
- those who already work and wish to or must update their expertise to changes in the working world (e.g. regarding new technological or IT material).
Fixed-term
This is an employment relationship that specifies a termination date in the contract. The law permits employers to place a fixed term on the employment relationship because of technical, production, organizational or replacement reasons. The fixed-term contract can be extended only once, with the worker's consent, provided the initial contract was stipulated for a period of less than three years.
Temporary Work
This form of work is utilized by companies that have a need to cope for a limited period with an above-normal workload or to replace absent workers. A company with temporary requirements contacts a temporary work agency, which selects an ideal worker and sends him/her to the company for a brief, sometimes very brief, period of time. This particular form of work is based on a three-way relationship:
- the worker
- the temporary employment company (agency) that provides the worker
- the user company
Part Time
This is an employment contract, fixed-term or open-ended, characterized by a reduced work schedule. The part-time employment relationship differs from full-time employment only in the reduced amount of work hours: part-time workers must comply with all the terms of the labor contract, and employers must extend to thems all the rights endowed by the contract. The transformation of the relationship from full-time to part-time or vice versa must be consensual. The new law contemplates the possibility of adding flexible clauses to part-time contract to term.
Collaborations
These are work relationships midway between employment and free-lance work. The basic characteristic of the collaboration relationship lies in the fact that the workers performs their duties based on an assignment given by the employer (principal), but they performs them autonomously.
There are two types of collaboration:
The difference between the two types of collaboration lies in the habitualness: while occasional collaborators conclude their work relationship with the principal once the assigned tasks have been completed, project-based collaborators are linked to the employer by a relationship that extends over time.
Project-based collaborators are also not linked by an exclusive relationship and are therefore free to undertake other collaborative relationships (though the contract may include an exclusive arrangement).
Home-based work
Home-based workers are those who, under an employment relationship, perform their duties at home, or on available premises, usually without the assistance of family members or dependents, for compensation on behalf of one or more employers, using materials and accessories of their own or of the employer, even if they are provided through third parties.
Internship
Training and orientation internships, governed by Ministerial Decree 142/98, offer the possibility to alternate work and study, improving professional decisions through direct knowledge of the work environment and thus facilitating entry into the labor market. The duties performed during internship may earn educational credit and, if certified by the promoting entity, may be included in the CV/resume of the student or worker.