The need to update existing labour laws in light of the rapid changes introduced by the digital economy is one of principal issues under the “new ways of working” debate and has made the headlines in many Italian papers, including the leading daily, Il Sole24Ore. We need to use the legal tools that are available
On 31 May 2018, at the City Hall of Bologna (the fourth most populous city in northern Italy), the city’s mayor, representatives of Italy’s three main workers unions (CGIL, CISL and UIL), and two food delivery companies active in Bologna (Sgnam and Mymenu) met and signed the “Paper of fundamental rights of the digital
On May 7, 2018 the Labour Court of Turin handed down a landmark decision in a case brought by delivery bike drivers or couriers (“riders”) working for Foodora, an online food delivery company that offers meal delivery in 10 countries worldwide, including Italy.
Amongst other things, the riders, each with a freelance work contract with
An employee of an Italian university in Rome has successfully obtained a two-day paid leave of absence from work to care for his pet dog, which had undergone surgery and required special assistance for an additional day to recover. The Italian animal rights association, LAV, advised the employee on submitting his successful request to the university.
The Italian Data Protection Authority (IDPA) is increasingly faced with issues relating to the ways employers may monitor the Internet usage of its employees. In 2016, the Authority handed down two important decisions on this topic.
In the first decision, the IDPA stated that an Italian University (the University of Chieti and Pescara) was acting unlawfully in the way that it used e-mails to trace the identity of Internet users. This University, without having given any prior warning to its employees, implemented a system that retained information regarding personal Internet access, for the purpose of service monitoring, internal security and for the prevention of possible investigative inquiries by the Authorities. In essence, the policy, which controls, filters and monitors information on Internet data, enabled the employer to indiscriminately monitor employees from a distance. The IDPA’s decision was based on the argument that this policy breached the relevant principles of “actual need and proportionality of the treatment”. The IDPA considered that the policy was not in accordance with the law because it did not refer to tools used by the employees in performing their duties and had not been previously communicated to the employees.
In a decision dated December 7, 2016, Italy’s Supreme Court – the Corte di Cassazione – confirmed that the dismissal of an individual employee for redundancy can be legally grounded solely on business-related reasons, such as improving the company’s competitiveness, reducing costs, or increasing profits. The decision was based on the constitutional principle of “freedom of private enterprise.”
Back in 2003, with the objective of giving employers and employees maximum flexibility to agree to working relations, the so-called zero hour contract, also known informally as “job on call,” was formally introduced into the Italian employment law regime. Under these contracts, the employee agrees to be available to work for the employer only at specific times, at the request of the employer. In Italy, the typical employment contract is still the traditional full-time, open ended one, so it comes as no surprise that this arrangement is largely viewed as punitive to employees and is subject to multiple restrictions.