{"id":25405,"date":"2024-02-14T16:47:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T15:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/?p=25405"},"modified":"2024-02-14T17:21:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T16:21:59","slug":"european-employment-insight-february-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/european-employment-insight-february-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"European Employment Insight – February 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Andersen European Employment Service Line consists of specialist lawyers and tax advisors who proactively guide national and international companies in various sectors. The professionals assist the client throughout the entire employment relationship, from the signing of the contract to its termination.<\/p>\n

The monthly newsletter Employment Insights provides an overview of the latest developments in employment law, guidelines, case law and collective agreements from various countries. The February issue features contributions from 20 different European jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

The Italian experts led by partner Uberto Percivalle<\/a> focus their attention on the novelties contained in the 2024 Budget Law, in particular on the pension rules and the reduction of labour costs.<\/p>\n

LAW<\/h3>\n

2024 Budget Law and retirement rules<\/h4>\n

The Budget Law outlined the rules applicable in 2024 regarding retirement, including the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • defining old age retirement (with an age of at least 67 and at least 20 years\u2019 pension contributions)<\/li>\n
  • defining early retirement (with 42 yrs and 10 mths contributions for men and 41 yrs and 10 mths contributions for women, and an age of at least 64)<\/li>\n
  • “Level 103” early retirment (age of 62 + 41 years of contributions, but subject to pension payment limitations); (iv) “Women Option” early retirement (age 61 + 35 yrs. contributions, but subject to critical conditions of disability, or caregiving, or major business crisis affecting the employing company)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    2024 Budget Law and labor cost reductions<\/h4>\n

    The Budget Law outlined certain measures meant to reduce labor costs and\/or increase value to employees. Among them:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • a 6 percentage points reduction of the employees’ share of social contribution for wages not exceeding euro 2,692.00 monthly and a 7 percentage points reduction for wages not exceeding
      \neuro 1,923.00 monthly<\/li>\n
    • a 5% income tax cap on incentives not exceeding euro 3,000 euro gross (iii) a tax exemption on
      \ncertain benefits provided to employees up to 1,000 euro gross per year (2,000 euro for workers with children)<\/li>\n
    • an exemption from the employees’ share of social contribution, up to 3,000 euro per year, for women workers with at least two children<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Exemption for Southern Regions<\/h4>\n

      The European Commission accepted Italy\u2019s request to extend the \u201cSocial Contribution Partial Exemption for Southern Regions\u201d for an additional 6 months, until June 30, 2024. Said measure provides a social contribution reduction of up to 30% in favor of private employers based in one of Italy\u2019s southern
      \nregions (Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily).<\/p>\n

      COURT<\/h3>\n

      Social contribution remains due on the indemnity in lieu of notice, notwithstanding employees waiving their entitlement to the indemnity.<\/h4>\n

      With decision 395\/2024 the Court of Cassation opined that an employer\u2019s obligation to pay social security to the social security agency is autonomous and distinct from the obligation to pay the underlying indemnity in lieu of notice to an employee. For this reason, even if an employee has
      \nvalidly waived his\/her right to the indemnity, the social contribution on it remains due. The Court\u2019s reasoning is in line with past precedents and is an important reminder to employers, since waivers to indemnity in lieu of notice are frequent clauses in settlement agreements that follow individual and
      \ncollective redundancies.<\/p>\n

      Workers may take vacation, while on an illness leave, in order to minimize the risk to lose their job
      \nfor excessive illness<\/h4>\n

      With decision dated January 8, 2024, the Court again addressed the relationship between illness leave and vacation leave. The Court confirmed the possibility, for workers on an illness leave, to take vacation
      \nwhile on an illness leave, in order to change the ground of an absence from work to vacation, and avoid the loss of employment for excessive illness. In such cases, while workers do not have an unconditional
      \nentitlement to take a vacation leave, their employers must properly balance the business needs of their company, if any, to deny the use of vacation, with the workers\u2019 needs. Such a company obligation to
      \nattentively balance company and workers\u2019 needs would not be reasonable, on the other hand, in cases where the relevant collective agreement provides for other ways, such as unpaid leaves of absence, to avert the ill workers\u2019 loss of jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Andersen European Employment Service Line consists of specialist lawyers and tax advisors who proactively guide national and international companies in various sectors. The professionals assist the client throughout the entire employment relationship, from the signing of the contract to its termination. The monthly newsletter Employment Insights provides an overview of the latest developments in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25406,"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25405\/revisions\/25406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/it.andersen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}