The current structure of the "block" of firings
Also in consideration of the latest government measures, the emergency regulations concerning the prohibition of mass firings and for justified objective reasons appear to be structured as follows:
- employers who can access the Ordinary Redundancy Fund: for the generality of this category of employers the prohibition on dismissal ended on 30 June 2021. The "block" however continues to concern individual employers who make effective use of one of the social safety nets provided by the emergency legislation, for the entire period of the intervention of the wage supplement: CIGS former art. 40, first paragraph, Legislative Decree 73/2021 (reserved for employers who have recorded a decrease in turnover of 50% compared to the first half of 2019 and who have signed a trade union agreement aimed at maintaining employment); CIGO or CIGS former art. 40, third paragraph, Legislative Decree 73/2021 (CIG for which it is not due in additional contribution); o CIG in derogation according to the first paragraph of the new art. 40 bis of Legislative Decree 73/2021, introduced by Legislative Decree 99/2021, if it is not possible to access CIGO and CIGS for having exhausted the integrable weeks
- employers who can access the Redundancy Fund in derogation, the FIS and the Bilateral Funds: the prohibition of dismissal remains until 31 October 2021. According to the majority interpretation, the prohibition applies in any case, even if the employer doesn’t use social safety nets
- employers in the textile, clothing, leather goods and fur sectors (ATECO codes 13, 14 and 15): the ban on dismissal remains until 31 October 2021. For these sectors, a further period of CIG COVID is recognized- 19 of seventeen weeks, to be used between 1 July and 31 October 2021 (Article 4, second paragraph, Legislative Decree 99/2021).
In all cases of residual application of the withdrawal ban, mass firings for objective reasons will be possible in the cases of derogation already provided for in the previous emergency interventions: contract change, termination of business activity, bankruptcy without continuing the activity and collective agreements aimed at incentivized redundancy.
Finally, it should be noted that the social partners have signed a notice in which they agree to "undertake to recommend" to use social safety nets before proceeding with any dismissals: as formulated, the common notice is not able to place constraints directly on employers, who will therefore remain free not to respond to any invitations from their employers' association and to proceed with dismissals.
