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.
Law no. 428/1990, article 47-49; Law no. 223/1991, articles 4 and 24; Legislative Decree no. 25/2007, articles 4 and 8; Law n. 234/2021, art. 1, par. 224
In Italy, there are various cases where the employer is obliged to preventively communicate their restructuring plans.
Legislative decree 25/2007 constitutes the most general source of information rights for employees and their representatives. The decree is the transposition into domestic law of Directive 2002/14/EC on information and consultation rights. Through this directive, the EU legislator establishes a general framework for information and consultation of workers, which aims to promote the participation of workers in decision-making processes regarding employment within the company. The legislative decree 25/2007 is applicable to companies employing at least 50 workers.
The following cases have to go through an information and consultation procedure:
However, the concrete definition of the locations, times, subjects, methods and contents of information and consultation rights granted to workers are defined by collective agreements.
Remedies for the non-compliance with the decree are of two types:
Special regimes concerning employers' obligations to preventively communicate their restructuring plans are defined in two further cases: transfer of undertakings (law 428/1990) and collective dismissals (law 223/1991).
In cases of collective dismissals (that is the dismissal within 120 days of more than 5 workers in companies with more than 15 employees) the employer must follow a specific procedure, preventively informing employee representatives (RSA or RSU) of the company and the most representative trade unions. The legislation requires employers to inform the workers concerned in writing.
The information obligation concerns the reasons that prevent the adoption of measures alternative to dismissal and any measures planned to reduce their social impact. At the request of the trade union, communication must be followed by a joint examination, at the end of which the parties can reach an agreement which might identify, among other issues, the criteria for choosing workers to be dismissed.
The legislation specifies a maximum consultation period of 45 days. The consultation period can be extended on initiative of the territorial labour inspectorate for further 30 days if the parties fail to reach an agreement. After this maximum period of 75 days, the employer can proceed to collective dismissals. Simultaneously with the dispatch of the dismissal letters, the employer must send (according to law 92/2012 within 7 days) to the trade unions and the territory labour inspectorate a communication with the names of the dismissed workers and details concerning the modalities of application of the selection criteria. Employers shall detail the reasons why, based on the application of the criteria set out in the union agreement or, in the absence thereof, in the law, they have decided to dismiss those specific workers and not their colleagues. Employers may provide a comparative framework of all job positions in the company.
According to Art.1, Paragraph 224 of Law. 234 of 30 December 2021, in order to ensure the safeguarding of the employment and productive fabric, employers intending to close a location, plant, branch, office, or independent department located in the national territory, with the definitive cessation of its activity and the dismissal of no less than 50 workers, are required to provide written notification of their intention to close to the company trade union representatives or the unitary trade union representation. This should also be communicated to the local branches of the most nationally representative trade union associations by category, the relevant regions, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, the Ministry of Economic Development, and the National Agency for Active Labour Policies (ANPAL). This communication can be made through the employers' association to which the company belongs or to which it gives a mandate.
Company-level agreements may specify procedures in relation to collective redundancies. The tendency in Italy is towards negotiations between the partners with a view towards ending up with an agreement on possibilities to avoid all, or part of, the redundancies, and can also bear on the setting up of accompanying measures in order to facilitate conversion and requalification.
Eurofound (2015), Italy: Staff information and consultation on restructuring plans, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/staff-information-and-consultation-on-restructuring-plans/italy
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