WORK IN DIRECT AND REGULAR CONTACT WITH MINORS
The employer must request the certification
Valid only for employments succeeding April 7th
Legislative decree no. 39/2014 obligates the employer to acquire the penal certificate of employees involved in activities involving direct and regular contact with minors. The certificate, which needs to be requested from the Judicial Records present at each Public Prosecutor’s Office in relation to employments commencing from April 7th onwards, will contain an indication of the existence of the employee’s possible convictions of crimes against minors, such as child pornography, child-luring and child prostitution.
The employer can request this by filling out a form, which should be available at the Criminal Records, containing a signature (for consent of release) of the employee involved in the employment. The penalty for failing to request the certificate is the administrative sanction of 10,000 to 15,000 euro.
The employee who turns out to be responsible for crimes mentioned above may not be assigned to tasks which put them in contact with minors. If in case the aforementioned employees cannot be excluded, they can be dismissed.
It is to be ruled-out that the criminal certificate must be requested for workers who, for example sales assistants, cannot be considered “in direct and regular contact with minors”, since normally purchasers are adults, only occasionally accompanied by minors, which they supervise.
Only in cases where employees are involved in any nursery or entertainment areas for children until collected by parents, where existent, is it necessary to request the relevant penal certificate in question.
