With circular no. 98 of 3 September, signed by the General Manager Gabriella Di Michele, INPS illustrates the regulatory and operational profiles inherent to the extraordinary wage integration intervention that supports the new expansion contract.
In this regard, INPS recalls that the Growth Decree Law of April 2019 amended the "expansive solidarity contract" envisaged by the Jobs Act of 2015 by introducing into our legal system, on an experimental basis for the years 2019-2020, the "contract of expansion".
The new institution is aimed at companies, with more than 1000 staff and already falling within the scope of the cigs, which find themselves in the need to undertake reindustrialization and reorganization paths, with consequent modifications of the company processes necessary to implement and develop activities working on more technical content.
To use the new tool, companies must initiate a union consultation procedure in the government aimed at stipulating an expansion contract with the comparatively most representative unions at national level or with their company representatives or with the unitary union representation.
In support of the corporate development process, the purpose of the expansion contract is to allow companies to introduce new forces into their workforce and, at the same time, start a personnel retraining process, aimed at updating individual and collective skills.
In particular, with regard to workers on the payroll who are difficult to use productively as a result of the technological development started, INPS underlines that companies have two opportunities:
- agree on an early exit with workers no more than 5 years from the old-age pension or from the early one and in possession of the minimum contribution requirement
- resort to reductions in working hours with recourse to the cigs for those workers who cannot adhere to the pension slide
Having said this, INPS has submitted some aspects of the new expansion contract to the Ministry of Labour, in order to arrive at a more in-depth assessment which, with particular regard to the nature and characteristics of the CIGS intervention, could be useful for allowing a correct measurement management.
Cigs scope of application
The new expansion contract can be used by companies which, even if divided into different production units throughout the country, have had a total of at least 1000 workers on average in the six months preceding the date of submission of the Cigs request.
In determining the number of employees employed, workers of any qualification must be included, including managers and fixed-term contracts, with the exclusion of temporary workers, trainees and interns.
Nature and characteristics of the Cigs intervention
The nature of the Cigs in question is attributable to the cause of the corporate reorganization envisaged by the Jobs Act.
With reference to the workers concerned, the following are therefore excluded from recourse to the Cigs:
- the executives
- home workers
- apprentices with fixed-term contracts other than the professional type.
Furthermore, for the purposes of using the fund, it should be noted that the workers must possess, at the production unit for which the intervention is requested, an effective seniority of work of at least 90 days on the date of presentation of the relative Cigs application .
Duration of treatment
The extraordinary wage integration intervention for the expansion contract can be requested for a period not exceeding 18 months, even non-continuous, and, by way of derogation from the overall duration and specific limits on the use of cash, it cannot be counted in the five-year period reference.
Additional contribution
The CIGS connected to the expansion contract provides for the payment of the additional contribution referred to in article 5 of the 2015 Jobs Act.
To this end, INPS reminds that this contribution is progressively equal to:
- 9% of the total remuneration that would have been due to the worker for the hours of work not worked, in relation to the ordinary and extraordinary wage integration periods used within one or more interventions granted up to an overall limit of 52 weeks in a mobile five-year period
- 12% over the limit of 52 and up to 104 weeks
- 15% over the limit of 104 weeks always in a mobile five-year period.
Therefore, starting from the pay period following the Cigs concession provision, the company is required to pay the additional contribution calculated on the global remuneration that would have been due to the workers for the hours not worked.
Time limit for the balance of benefits
The employer directly disburses the redundancy fund, which will be reimbursed by INPS or adjusted by the employer itself upon fulfillment of the compulsory contribution obligations.
The adjustment must be made, under penalty of forfeiture, within 6 months from the end of the pay period in progress to the expiry of the term of duration of the authorization or of the date of the concession provision if later.
The aforementioned forfeiture term also applies where the contributory obligation generates a credit balance for the company.
