The publication is a panoramic view of how laws and regulations vary across jurisdictions from the cross-jurisdictional comparison tool. It includes 42 reports on different national labour law legislations.
Below is an extract of the Italian report drafted by Zambelli & Partners.
Legislation and agencies
Primary and secondary legislation
What are the main statutes and regulations relating to employment?
Italian employment law comes from various sources, including:
- international treaties and European sources;
- the Constitution, domestic law and the Civil Code;
- collective bargaining agreements (CBAs);
- individual employment agreements; and
- customs and practices.
In Italy, as in other civil law systems, case law precedents are issued by a court according to its inner conviction, which is based upon legal provisions. Case law precedents – in particular, those issued by the Supreme Court – have a significant role in orienting both the interpretation and the application of Italian laws.
The most important labour laws are:
- Law No. 300 of 20 May 1970(the Workers’ Statute) on the freedom and dignity of employees, the freedom of trade unions and trade union activity;
- Law No. 604 of 15 July 1966(amended by Law No. 108 of 11 May 1990) on individual dismissals;
- Law No. 223 of 23 July 1991on collective dismissals;
- Legislative Decree No. 151 of 26 March 2001, containing provisions on the protection of maternity and paternity;
- Legislative Decree No. 66 of 8 April 2003(as amended by Legislative Decree No. 213 of 19 July 2004 and Law No. 133 of 6 August 2008) on working time;
- Legislative Decree No. 81 of 9 April 2008on health and safety in the workplace;
- Law No. 92 of 28 June 2012, which regulates various issues of Italian labour law, including dismissals and the relevant procedure therefor, and many other provisions concerning employment relationships;
- Legislative Decree No. 23 of 4 March 2015, which introduced new regulations for unlawful dismissals that apply to all levels of employees – except the highest category of employee (executive-level employees) – hired permanently as of 7 March 2015;
- Legislative Decree No. 81 of 15 June 2015, which aims to systematically regulate the different types of employment contracts (fixed-term contracts, staff leasing and apprenticeships, etc);
- Legislative Decree No. 104 of 27 June 2022, on implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019, on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union, which introduces provisions governing information on the employment relationship, minimum requirements for working conditions, and a number of additional measures to protect employees;
- Law No. 85 of 3 July 2023, converting into law, with amendments, Decree Law No. 48 of 2023, on ‘Urgent measures for social inclusion and access to the world of work’ concerning the simplification of the use of fixed-term contracts, with rationalisation of the reasons necessary for the conclusion of contracts between 12 and 24 months and for the extension and renewal of contracts that extend the duration beyond 12 months;
- Law No. 203 of 13 December 2024, which came into force on 12 January 2025, and mainly concerns some new provisions on employees’ implicit resignations, maximum duration of the probationary period in fixed-term employment agreements, workforce supply and mixed contracts having as their object both subordinate work duties and self-employed work performances; and
- Law No. 207 of 30 December 2024,which came into force on 1 January 2025 and mainly concerns some new provisions on travel expense refund, parental leave and fringe benefits.
Many issues related to employment relationships are governed by the national CBA applied by the employer as well as by agreements that are signed with trade unions at the company level.
Protected employee categories
Is there any law prohibiting discrimination or harassment in employment? If so, what categories are regulated under the law?
The Constitution guarantees equal treatment of all citizens and expressly forbids any kind of discrimination based on birth, race, gender, religion, ideology, or any other personal or social circumstance.
The Workers’ Statute prohibits employment discrimination on the following grounds:
- gender;
- political opinions;
- union-related activity;
- religion;
- race;
- language;
- disability status;
- age;
- sexual orientation;
- personal beliefs; and
- nationalities
Further, both direct discrimination (where a person is treated less favourably on the basis of one of the above-mentioned prohibited grounds) and indirect discrimination (where an apparently neutral provision, criterion, practice, agreement or conduct has a disparate impact on one of the protected classes) are prohibited.
The Italian Code of Equal Opportunities between Men and Women is aimed at ensuring equal treatment and opportunities between women and men in all fields, including employment and pay.
In addition to the above, the employer is also obliged to protect its personnel’s physical safety and moral character. These protection obligations include the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace, which is generally defined as conduct that:
- was carried out for reasons relating to sex; and
- was aimed to, or may, result in a breach of an employee’s dignity or a threatening, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive working environment.
Enforcement agencies
What are the primary government agencies or other entities responsible for the enforcement of employment statutes and regulations?
The National Labour Inspectorate is the body entrusted with the task of verifying compliance with employment, labour, social contribution and insurance Italian legislation. In addition to the above:
- the National Social Security Authority verifies compliance with the Italian legislation on social contributions; and
- the National Insurance Authority verifies compliance with the Italian legislation on safety at work.
Employment courts are public bodies that have jurisdiction over disputes between employers and employees (or claims regarding commercial agencies and independent contractors). Generally, employment tribunals’ decisions are appealable to the Court of Appeal, while appeal judgments can be challenged in front of the Supreme Court.
Worker representation
Legal basis
Is there any legislation mandating or allowing the establishment of employees’ representatives in the workplace?
Section 39 of the Constitution provides the freedom to set up or join a trade union association. Accordingly, trade unions are considered unincorporated associations that do not need any authorisation or any registration to be recognised.
Under section 14 of Law No. 300 of 20 May 1970 (the Workers’ Statute), workers are entitled to establish and join works councils, and carry out union activities, at the workplace.
Trade union representatives’ bodies may be established (with the modalities set forth in section19 of the Workers’ Statute) within companies employing more than 15 workers in each headquarters, office, plant or unit or within the same municipality.
There are two types of works councils:
- RSAs, which are governed by section 19 of the Workers’ Statute and may be formed at the initiative of workers within each production unit within the framework of trade union associations that have signed (or negotiated) the collective agreement applicable to the production unit; and
- RSUs, which were introduced by the 1993 inter-union agreement, whose members are elected directly by employees from lists submitted by trade unions.
In this context, Legislative Decree No. 188 of 19 August 2005, which implemented Directive 2001/86/EC integrating the European companies’ statute with regard to the involvement of employees, and Legislative Decree No. 113 of 22 June 2012, which implemented Directive 2009/38/EC on the establishment of European works councils (which are information and consultation bodies representing employees in European multinational companies), should also be considered.
Powers of representatives
What are their powers?
Under Italian law, works councils are entrusted with specific powers and granted specific rights. Collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) may provide for additional powers and rights. The main powers and rights among these are:
- information and consultation on specific events such as, among others, transfers of business, collective dismissals and recourse to salary-integrated social security funds;
- periodic information on the envisaged trend of the employer’s business and its economic situation, the occupational situation and envisaged trends, and potential company decisions that may affect work organisation and employment contracts (this only applies to companies staffed by more than 50 employees or in the hypothesis provided for by the applicable CBAs);
- negotiation of company CBAs; and
- advance agreement on the adoption of any systems that may result in employees’ performance being monitored.
Background information on applicants
Background checks
Are there any restrictions or prohibitions against background checks on applicants? Does it make a difference if an employer conducts its own checks or hires a third party?
According to section 8 of Law No. 300 of 20 May 1970 (the Workers’ Statute) and the case law, employers – both during the recruitment process and throughout the employment relationship – are prevented from carrying out investigations aimed at ascertaining certain categories of information about employees, such as:
- political views;
- religious beliefs;
- race;
- moral and psychological characteristics;
- sentimental, family or social life;
- maternity or paternity status;
- gender;
- disability or HIV status;
- age;
- sexual orientation;
- personal opinions;
- affiliation with trade unions or participation in strikes; and
- any data other than that necessary to verify their professional skills.
This prohibition applies even if these investigations are not directly carried out by the employer but performed by third parties.
Medical examinations
Are there any restrictions or prohibitions against requiring a medical examination as a condition of employment?
Under section 5 of the Workers’ Statute, employers are prevented from directly carrying out checks aimed at verifying an applicant’s physical suitability. However, such checks are allowed if they are carried out by the company doctor and aimed solely at verifying the applicant’s professional suitability for the performance of specific tasks that he or she is to be assigned.
In that case, employers may legitimately refuse to hire applicants who do not submit to medical examinations carried out by the company doctor.
The full Lexology Panoramic report is available here:
https://www.lexology.com/panoramic/tool/workareas/report/labour-and-employment/chapter/italy