NEWSLETTER PAYROLL MARCH 2023

Foreign workers’ traineeships with residence permit for study   

The National Labor Inspectorate, in Note N. 320 of Feb. 14, 2023, provided an opinion on the use of a residence permit for study or vocational training in relation to work activities performed as part of an internship.
National and regional regulations on training and orientation internships also apply to non-EU citizens, allowing them too to take advantage of paths aimed at job placement. But the law distinguishes the hypothesis of internships with a person legally residing in Italy (Article 2, Ministerial Decree. March 22, 2006) – for example, with a residence permit issued for reasons of study – to which the regional regulations in force apply, in full or, in default, the regulations contained in Ministerial Decree N. 142 of March 25, 1998, apply, from that with a subject who is abroad (Article 3, Ministerial Decree March 22, 2006), in respect of whom Article 40, paragraph 9, letter a), Presidential Decree 394/1999 applies.
The foreign citizen already present on Italian territory with a valid residence permit (for study or vocational training) can carry out:

• all the curricular internship activities provided by the course of study or professional training for which the residence permit was issued as they fall within the purposes for which the residence permit was issued;
• a non-curricular traineeship activity, in compliance with the prerequisites provided by regional regulations, compatible with the completion of the course of study or professional training underlying the issuance of the entry permit, with no relevance, for this hypothesis – which does not constitute an employment relationship – the limits within which the performance of subordinate work activities is allowed under Article 14, paragraph 4, Presidential Decree 394/1999.

Annual communication deadline for heavy work 

By next March 31, the annual communication for the monitoring of heavy work with reference to the previous year (2022) must be sent.

Those engaged in particularly strenuous and heavy work, in fact, are entitled to take advantage of early access to retirement and, with regard to these jobs, the employer is required to notify the ITL and the relevant social security institutions.
These are:

• particularly strenuous work (Article 2, Ministerial Decree of Labor May 19, 1999), such as:

1. work in tunnels, quarries or mines-all tasks performed underground by employees with a prevalent and continuous nature;
2. work in air caissons;
3. work performed by divers;
4. work at high temperatures;
5. hollow glass work;
6. work performed in confined spaces-with prevalence and continuity character, especially shipbuilding, repair and maintenance activities and work performed continuously within confined spaces, such as crawl spaces, manholes, double bottoms, board or large block structures;
7. asbestos removal work;

• night work (Article 1, Legislative Decree 66/2003);
• work performed by workers on the so-called chain line (Article 1, paragraph 1, letter c), Legislative Decree 67/2011 and listed in Annex 1 of the same Decree):

1. confectionery products, additives for beverages and other foods;
2. processing and transformation of synthetic resins and thermoplastic and thermosetting polymeric materials; production of finished articles, etc;
3. sewing machines and linking machines for industrial and domestic use;
4. construction of motor vehicles and trailers;
5. thermal appliances: of steam production, heating, refrigeration, air conditioning;
6. household appliances;
7. other tools and appliances;
8. textile manufacture of articles of clothing and accessories, etc;
9. shoe making from any material, including limited to individual stages of the production cycle;

• drivers of vehicles, with a total capacity of not less than 9 seats, used for public collective transport services (Article 1, paragraph 1, letter d), Legislative Decree 67/2011).

To comply, it is necessary to accredit to the system and fill out the LAV_US form online in the portal https://servizi.lavoro.gov.it.
Communications through the LAV_US form are of different types:

• chain work start;
• usurious work M.D. 1999;
• usurious night work;
• usurious chain work;
• usurious work drivers.

In the case of night work (performed on a continuous basis or included in regular periodic shifts), failure to report annually carries an administrative penalty of 500 euros to 1,500 euros.

Competent doctor protection of video screeners in smart-working 

The increasing diffusion of the so-called agile working mode (smart-working) requires employers to put in place the envisaged protections in order to ensure adequate health and safety conditions in the workplace also with regard to video terminal workers who work in smart working and who are, at present, carrying out work activities at home or, in any case, in places even far away from their place of work. Given the aforementioned situation, a special interpellation was submitted to the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy to ascertain whether it is possible for the employer to identify, with a special appointment, competent physicians different and additional to those already appointed for the employees’ original place of assignment, close to the place where the same employees now continue to work in smart working, specifically identified for special territorial areas (provinces and/or regions) and specially appointed exclusively for these areas and for the types of workers operating from these areas.
The Ministry’s technical experts, in response No. 1/2023, after a thorough examination of the current legislation conclude by recalling that the employer ensures the health and safety of the worker who performs the service in agile work mode and therefore may appoint more than one competent doctor, identifying among them a doctor with coordination functions, for special organizational needs in cases of companies with several production units, in cases of groups of companies as well as if the need emerges in relation to risk assessment. Therefore, the appointment of several competent physicians, in the Commission’s opinion, can only be brought within the scope of the aforementioned regulatory provision.
It is understood that, should the aforementioned provision be applied, each competent physician, will come to assume all obligations and responsibilities in this regard under the current legislation.
In general, it should be remembered that it will have to be the responsibility of the employer to rework the risk assessment document in the cases referred to in Article 29, paragraph 3, Legislative Decree 81/2008.

The firm remains available for any further clarification.
Best Regards.