Intermittent work (so-called “on-call work” or “job on call”) is a particular type of employment relationship governed by Art. 15 of Legislative Decree No. 81 of June 15, 2015, through which a worker makes himself available to an employer who can use his/her work performance on a discontinuous or intermittent basis according to the needs identified by collective agreements.
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Elements of the intermittent contract
Among the novelties introduced by Legislative Decree No. 104/2022, effective as of August 13, 2022, the so-called Transparency Decree, some of them concern the regulation of the intermittent labor contract.
It has been confirmed that the contract must be in written form as stipulated in Legislative Decree No. 81/2015 and must contain the following elements that fulfill the employer’s duty of information and transparency (Fondazione studi consulenza del lavoro, circular dated September 06, 2022):
- the variable nature of the work schedule, duration and assumptions, objective or subjective, which allow the conclusion of the contract in accordance with Article No. 13;
- the place and manner of availability, if any, guaranteed by the worker;
- the economic and normative treatment due to the worker for the service performed, with an indication of the amount of any guaranteed paid hours and the remuneration due for the work performed in addition to the guaranteed hours as well as the relevant availability allowance, where applicable;
- the forms and manner in which the employer is entitled to request the performance of the work and the related notice of the worker’s call, as well as the manner in which the performance is to be recorded;
- the time and manner of payment of wages and availability allowance;
- the safety measures required in relation to the type of activity deduced in the contract;
- any predetermined time slots and days on which the worker is required to perform work.
Advance notice of call
Legislative Decree No. 81/2015 obliged the employer to call the worker within 24 hours of the start of work performance. With the entry into force of the new regulation, the parties are free to agree on call notice even less than one working day and to consider notice given on a holiday or non-working day as valid and legitimate.
Revocation of assignment
If the employer revokes a previously scheduled assignment, without reasonable notice, the employer is required to pay the employee the remuneration provided for the service agreed upon in the collective agreement, where applicable or, compensate the employee with a sum of no less than 50% of the remuneration initially agreed upon for the cancelled service.
Obligation to indicate “any” time slots and predetermined days
Such information may facilitate the employee to engage in other employment. As dictated by the new legislation, without prejudice to the employee’s duty of loyalty Art. No. 2105 of the Civil Code, the employer may not prohibit him/her from carrying out other work outside the hours provided by the agreed work schedule. The time slots in which the work performance begins or ends will have to be indicated. The days on which the worker may be called upon to render work performance will have to be specified, too.
Transition to more predictable, secure and stable forms of work
Article 10 of Legislative Decree No. 104/2022, which regulates, precisely, the transition to more predictable, secure and stable forms of work, can also be applied to intermittent work.
A worker with seniority of at least six months with the same employer who has completed any probationary period has the right to request recognition of more predictable, secure and stable forms of work, subject to the worker’s expressing such willingness in writing.
The employer shall offer the worker a transition to an employment relationship of this nature only if it is available; otherwise, it shall notify the worker of the negative response within one month.
The worker may submit a new request only after six months from the previous one.
It seems quite evident in conclusion, that the above-mentioned novelties, facilitate the use of this form of employment.
The parties, precisely, have freedom of decision on notice of the call and on agreeing to carry it out on holidays. This allows the worker to engage in other work activities in compliance with Article 2105 of the Civil Code.