The International Comparative Legal Guide – Employment & Labour Law 2023 is now online.
It’s now live on ICLG.com and includes the focus on Italian legislation edited by partners of Zambelli & Partners.
Below you can read an extract, click here the whlole chapter on ICLG.com
Terms and Conditions of Employment
1.1 What are the main sources of employment law?
Italian employment law comes from various sources:
- European and International treaties, laws and conventions;
- the Constitution and domestic laws (i.e., Law no. 300/1970, the so-called Workers’ Statute);
- collective bargaining agreements;
- individual employment contracts; and
- customs and practices.
Furthermore, case law precedents may have a significant role in orienting both the interpretation and application of Italian labour laws and regulations.
1.2 What types of worker are protected by employment law? How are different types of worker distinguished?
Based on the modality of performance, employment relation- ships can be distinguished into subordinate and self-employed ones. In particular, the former is characterised with respect to the latter by the employee’s subjection to the employer’s direc- tive, controlling and disciplinary powers.
Where such elements do not clearly emerge in the concrete case, the jurisprudence has however pointed out a series of so-called “supplementary indexes” which, if they occur, indicate whether a working activity has a subordinate nature (i.e. absence of business risk, observance of working hours and receipt of a fixed salary and at predetermined periods of time).
Italian law also considers two types of collaborations drawn to the discipline of subordinate or self-employment depending on whether or not the modalities of coordination are established by mutual agreement between the interested parties. The former, i.e., hetero-organised collaborations are opposed to the so-called “parasubordinate” work, where complete autonomy is granted to the collaborator in defining the manner and timing of work.
1.3 Do contracts of employment have to be in writing? If not, do employees have to be provided with specific information in writing?
Pursuant to Italian law, there is no specific obligation to draft in writing the employment contract. Nevertheless, certain clauses must be in writing in order to be considered effective and valid (i.e. the ones envisaging a probationary period or fixed-term period).
Recently, the Legislative Decree no. 104/2022 (“Decreto Trasparenza”) established that the employer must provide the employee with information in writing, at the date of hiring or at least within seven days after the commencement of the employ- ment relationship, including, but not limited to, the identity of the parties, the place of work, the registered office or domicile of the employer, the date of commencement of employment, the initial remuneration and the items that compose it with details of the timing and method of payment, the employee’s contractual cate- gory, level and job title and the specific type of contract, specifying whether it is e.g. a fixed-term relationship, its duration, etc.