European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
Directive 98/59/CE; Law no. 223/1991, article 24; Legislative Decree 8 April 2004, no. 110 , article 1; Legislative Decree n. 149 14/09/2015 whole decree; Legislative Decree no.61 of 18 May 2018 whole decree; Law No. 234 of 30 December 2021
The rules on collective dismissals apply to companies and private employers staffed with more than 15 people. To fall within the scope of the legislation, the dismissals must involve at least five workers within a time span of 120 days. Legislative Decree of 8 April 2004, no. 110 enlarged the scope of Law no. 223/1991 to employers who are not entrepreneurs, also pursuant to judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) C-32/02 of 16 October 2003.
Rules on collective dismissals apply as well in case companies having activated the Extraordinary Wage Guarantee Fund (Cassa Integrazione Guadagni Straordinaria, CIGS) decide to proceed with one or more dismissals.
Collective dismissals are subject to a triple control mechanism (collective dismissal procedure or mobility procedure) implemented by union, administrative institutions, and judicial authorities. In detail, the unions and, whereas an agreement is not reached during the first negotiation phase, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies or its local branch, the territorial labour inspectorates (Ispettorati Territoriali del Lavoro) take part in the collective dismissal procedure. In addition, the judicial authorities can be appealed after the conclusion of the procedure. The national legislation requires proposed collective dismissals to be justified in terms of a reduction, change, or cessation of activity.
According to Legislative Decree no. 61 of 18 May 2018, seafarers are covered by collective dismissals procedures.
The Law No. 234 of 30 December 2021 (2022 Budget Law) sets stringent rules for companies with over 250 employees, considering the previous year's average (referred to the number of employees), including apprentices and managers. If these companies plan to close departments or dismiss 50 or more employees, they must:
The freedom of the employer to proceed with a collective dismissal derives directly from the constitutional guarantee to exercise economic initiative (article 41 of the Italian constitution). This is the reason why the court does not scrutinise the choices made by the employer, while the prior checking is entrusted to the trade unions. The court can only verify in the second instance whether the motivations for collective dismissals were unlawful.
According to the CJEU (judgment C-249/24, Ineo Infracom, 11 July 2024), terminations following a worker’s refusal to accept a substantial and unilateral change to an essential element of the employment contract (such as a change of workplace) must be treated as terminations initiated by the employer for reasons not related to the individual worker. While this ruling does not amend the wording of Law No. 223/1991, it suggests that Italian case law may need to interpret the scope of “collective redundancies” more broadly when applying Directive 98/59/EC, so as to include such terminations in the headcount where the numerical thresholds are assessed.
Eurofound (2015), Italy: Definition of collective dismissal, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/definition-of-collective-dismissal/italy
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