EMPLOYMENT DECREE No. 34/2014
FIXED TERM CONTACT AND APPRENTICESHIP
... converted into law last Thursday with important news
A new step towards greater employment flexibility was made last Thursday with the conversion of Law Decree n. 34/2014, which introduced important innovations, especially regarding the fixed term contract (in terms of apprenticeship, in fact, the conversion law has greatly reduced the scope of the reform of the law).
We will return to this additional employment reform, which, according to the government's intentions, would be a prelude to the introduction of the permanent contract with progressive protection, with a relationship that would tend to stabilise (with less freedom for employer withdrawal) over time.
Fixed term contract. The legislation has been simplified. It will be possible to stipulate contracts for an acausal term (without a cause related to particular organisational and/or productive needs) for a maximum duration of 36 months. Without prejudice to this maximum total duration, each acausal term contract may be extended for a maximum of 5 times.
The company can sign acausal fixed term contracts up to a percentage of 20% of fixed-term contracts in place (but collective bargaining may exceed the quota), while employers with no more than 5 employees will only be able to hire one acausal fixed term worker.
Exceeding the aforementioned percentage will result in the application of a fine equal to 20% of the monthly remuneration in the case of a single additional acausal fixed term employee hired; this sanction could even be 50% of the remuneration paid to each fixed-term worker who exceeds the aforementioned quota in addition to the first excess.
Apprenticeship. The conversion in the law has instead eliminated many of the changes that the decree had tried to introduce. In fact, the obligation to draw up an individual training plan (which can be summarised on the basis of pre-established forms and formulas) has been reintroduced, as well as the obligation, for companies with at least 50 employees, to confirm the contracts of at least 20% of apprentices before taking on new ones. The conversion law has also reintroduced the obligation for the employer to integrate corporate training with regional provision, albeit on condition that the latter is offered by the Region within 45 days of employment.
