With message no. 1270/2019, the Inps (National Insurance Institute) made clarifications on communicating medical-legal assessments on the documentation provided by the worker following absence at the medical inspection visit of workers from the private sector not indemnified by the Institute. In particular, a specific function has been released aimed at providing the outcome of the assessments on the health documentation justifying the absence at the medical inspection visit, online and directly to the employer, thus exempting the worker from having to deliver it.
By accessing with their own operating PIN to the INPS website and selecting the service “Request Medical Inspection Visit (One-Stop VMC)”, public employers can consult the outcomes of the medical inspection visits requested. Furthermore the Public Administrations coming within the application environment of the law on the One-stop shop, can also consult the outcomes of the medical inspection visits ordered by the Inps. Through the same page for consulting the outcome, by selecting the link “Consult justification report”, the website provides employers with this document in pdf format. The same function is available to the employer of the private sector who asks to examine the justifying documentation when requesting a medical inspection visit for employees who are not entitled to sickness benefits provided by Inps. The function is available by accessing the Inps website with your operating PIN within the service “Request medical inspection visit”.
Analysis of the justifying documentation
In the event of absence at home medical inspection visits, the worker must provide or send Inps the documentation justifying their absence only in the event of this being for strictly health reasons. Indeed, if the institute does not provide any sickness benefits, it can only express a medical-legal opinion on the justification of the absence during the organised assessment, because the employer is responsible for the final assessment on the justification of the absence, for both health needs (on which the Inps only expresses an opinion), and especially, for any other kind of reason. Againstn respect of the documentation provided by the worker, the Inps indicates its own assessment in the special form, “Outpatient medical inspection visit”, to be given or sent directly to the worker who is subsequently obliged to give a copy to his or her own employer.
The Inps is, however, always obliged to give the interested worker the opinion on the justification of the absence, but, thanks to the new described function, the worker is no longer obliged to give a copy of the opinion on the justification of the absence to the employer.
CHANGES REGARDING LEAVE FOR CHILDREN OF A DISABLED SUBJECT
It is well known how the provisions of Legislative Decree 151/2001 (article 42, comma 5) grant the family member living with a seriously handicapped subject, the possibility of requesting a period of continual or apportioned leave, not exceeding 2 years in order to aid a family member in a situation of need. During this period, the employee will keep his or her job, but will not be entitled to payment and may obviously not carry out any working activity. It should be noted how the law explicitly and mandatorily requires that the potentially entitled subject lives with the family member to be aided.
In December 2018, the examined law on leave was reviewed by the Constitutional Court (sentence no. 232/2018), which established unlawfulness in the part in which it excludes the son or daughter, who does not live with the handicapped person at the moment the application was made, from the subjects entitled to this leave. Basically, according to what derives from the previously mentioned sentence, the son or daughter of the handicapped person may use the application for leave even in the absence of the requirement of cohabitation with their parent, however it must exist throughout the period of leave, as required by the law.
The Inps, with memorandum no. 49/2019, taking note of the Constitutional Court ruling, specifies that, for the purposes of assessing the entitlement of the right to leave for the son or daughter not living with the handicapped person, the son or daughter must declare, in the application, under their own responsibility, that they will cohabit with the seriously disabled family member, before the beginning of the period of leave requested and to maintain it for the whole duration whereof. This declaration will be subject to control.
Finally from an operative viewpoint, the Inps specifies that the sentence of the Constitutional Court extends its effects exclusively to the relations not completed starting from the day of publication. Therefore, any requests already received by the Inps offices concerning uncompleted relations will be re-examined. This refers to those legal situations for which no final sentence has been passed or the right has lapsed because of time barring.
Therefore, in the light of the legal framework in force, it is possible to use this leave according to the following order of priorities:
- the “cohabiting spouse”/the “cohabiting party of the civil union” of the seriously disabled person;
- the father or mother, also the adoptive or foster parent, of the seriously disabled person, in the event of the absence, death or in the presence of incapacitating pathologies of the “cohabiting spouse”/of the “cohabiting party of the civil union”;
- one of the the “cohabiting children” of the seriously disabled person, in the event of the “cohabiting spouse”/the “cohabiting party of the civil union” and both the parents of the disabled person being absent, dead or affected by incapacitating diseases;
- one of the the “cohabiting brothers or sisters” of the seriously disabled person, in the event of the “cohabiting spouse”/the “cohabiting party of the civil union”, “both the parents” and the “cohabiting children” of the disabled person being absent, dead or affected by incapacitating diseases;
- a “blood relative or by marriage within the third degree of kinship” of the seriously disabled person, in the event of the “cohabiting spouse”/the “cohabiting party of the civil union”, “both the parents”, the “cohabiting children” and the “cohabiting brothers or sisters” of the disabled person being absent, dead or affected by incapacitating diseases;
- one of the children not yet cohabiting with the seriously disabled person, but that this cohabitation is subsequently established in the event of the “cohabiting spouse”/the “cohabiting party of the civil union”, “both the parents”, the “cohabiting children” and the “cohabiting brothers or sisters”, the “blood relatives or by marriage within the third degree” being absent, dead or affected by incapacitating diseases;
NEET 2019 EMPLOYMENT INCENTIVE
The Anpal (National Agency for Active Labour Policies) Departmental Decree 581/2018 has extended the incentive for the employment of young people belonging to the “Garanzia Giovani” programme. The incentive is granted to all open-ended employment contracts made between 1st January and 31st January 2019, within the limits of the resources specifically allocated and can be accumulated, for the residual part of the employer’s contributions, with the exemption from contributions to stable youth employment, envisaged by article 1 (100), of Law 205/2017.
With memorandum no. 54/2019, the Inps has provided operative instructions for availing of the incentive.
Contracts liable for the incentive
The incentive can be acknowledged for:
- open-ended contract appointment, even for staff leasing;
- Vocational training apprenticeships;
- paid employment contracts established by implementing an associating relationship with a labour cooperative,
either full time or part-time.
The benefit is excluded:
- in the event of employment with a domestic or intermittent employment contract and in the event of casual work;
- for apprenticeship contracts for vocational qualification and certification, the secondary school leaving certificate and the higher technical specialisation certificate, as well as advanced training and research apprenticeship contracts;
- in the event of transformation of fixed-term contracts into open-ended contracts.
In the event of open-ended employment for staff leasing, the exemption includes both open-ended staff leasing and fixed-term staff leasing, including any periods while the worker is waiting to be assigned.
The incentive may be acknowledged to the same worker for only one employment contract, even if it has been acknowledged for employment made during the course of 2018.
Incentive
The incentive is equal to the welfare contribution payable by the employer, with the exclusion of the premiums and contributions owed to Inail (National Institute for Insurance against Accidents, for a maximum amount of 8,060 euro per year, weighted and applied on a monthly basis for twelve months. The maximum threshold for exemption from the employer’s contribution is, therefore, equal to 671.66 euro (€ 8,060/12) and, for employment relations established and terminated during the course of the month, this threshold is reapportioned by assuming the measure of 21.66 euro (€ 671.66/31) for each day of availing of the contribution exemption. Assuming part time working relations, the maximum of the facilitation must be proportionally reduced. The facilitation can be used starting from the date of employment and by 28 February 2021. The period of using the facilitation can only be suspended in the event of obligatory absence from work for maternity leave, in this case permitting the deferment in time of the period of use of the benefit. However, even in this case, the incentive must be used by the peremptory term of 28th February 2021, under penalty of expiry. This means that it will not be possible to recover portions of the incentive in later periods with respect to the envisaged term and that the last month when regularisations and recovery of portions of the incentive can be made is that of January 2021.
Conditions of entitlement
The right to availing of the incentive is dependent on the following conditions:
- respecting the conditions envisaged by article 1 (1175 and 1176), of Law 296/2006 (fulfilment of the contribution obligations; observing the laws to protect the working conditions; respecting, without prejudice to the other legal obligations, the agreements and national collective contracts, as well as the regional, territorial or company ones, if signed, stipulated by the union organisations of the employers and of the workers comparatively most representative on the domestic level);
- application of the general principles regarding incentives to employment established lastly by article 31 of Legislative Decree 150/2015.
State aid
The incentive may be legitimately used in respect of the provisions of Regulation (EU) 1407/2013, regarding application of articles 107 and 108, Tfeu, or, alternatively, beyond these limits, at the conditions envisaged by article 7, D.D. 3/2018, summarised below:
- The employment must determine a net increase of employment with respect to the average of the workers employed in the previous 12 months;
- for the workers aged between 25 and 29, the incentive may only be availed of when, in addition to the requirement of the employment increase, one of the following requirements is respected:
- the worker has not been in regular paid employment for at least 6 months;
- the worker is not in possession of a secondary school leaving certificate or a vocational qualification or diploma;
- the worker completed full-time education no more than 2 years before and has not yet obtained his or her first regularly paid employment;
- the worker is employed in professions or sectors characterised by an unequal rate of men to women exceeding at least 25% of the average male/female disparity in all the economic sectors of the State or is employed in economic sectors in which the mentioned difference is found in the measure of at least 25%.
With reference to the individual working relationship, the choice of one of the two schemes applicable to State Aid excludes the operability of the other, because they are alternatives.
Coordination with other incentives
The incentive cannot be combined with other employment incentives of an economic or contributory nature, with the exception of the incentive envisaged by article 1 (100), of Law 205/2017. In the event of accumulation between the contributory exemption envisaged by the Budget Law 2018 and the Neet Employment Incentive, the maximum annual threshold for exemption from the employer’s contribution for this incentive amounts to 5,060 Euro, for a maximum amount reapportioned on a monthly basis, equal to 421.66 euro (€ 5,060/12) and, for employment relations established and terminated during the course of the month, for a maximum amount of 13.60 euro (€ 421.66/31) for each day of using the contribution exemption.
The office remains at your disposal for any further clarification.
Arianna De Carlo – Senior Payroll Specialist & Labour Consultant
Contact: adecarlo@ldp-payroll.com