"A system of rights and modern welfare" for self-employed workers and new rules to regulate the so-called "agile work", the activity carried out without a fixed workstation. These are the two main chapters of the bill approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Minister of Labour, Giuliano Poletti.
The text – together with the one containing the new anti-poverty plan – will travel to Parliament as linked to the Stability law, in order to speed up its approval.
SELF-EMPLOYED
The first part of the provision concerns individual VAT numbers and those enrolled in the separate management of INPS. Here are the new arrivals.
1) Tax concessions. It will be possible to deduct 100% of the expenses incurred from the taxable amount for:
- training, or participation in conferences, congresses and professional refresher courses (within a limit of 10 thousand euros per year);
- services customized certification of skills, guidance, research and support for self-entrepreneurship aimed at the insertion or reintegration of the self-employed worker into the labor market (in this case the ceiling is 5 thousand euros per year);
- insurance against non-payment of self-employment services.
The latest innovation aims to "facilitate the stipulation of these policies - explains Palazzo Chigi in a note - and at the same time the development of the insurance market and the diffusion of these forms of insurance, with a consequent reduction in costs for the self-employed".
2) Unfair terms. Clauses which give the employer the right to unilaterally modify the conditions of the contract, including withdrawal, are considered ineffective. The clauses that establish payment times exceeding 60 days from the issue of the invoice are also null and void.
3) Maternity. To receive the maternity allowance (which you are entitled to in the two months preceding and in the three months following the date of the birth) it will no longer be necessary to suspend work.
4) Parental leave. The maximum duration of the allowance for parental leave (6 months) and the time frame within which it is possible to use it (the first 3 years of the child's life) have been extended.
5) Pregnancy, illness, injury. The employment relationship of self-employed workers who work on a continuous basis for the client is suspended without pay (not terminated) in the event of pregnancy, illness or injury, for a period not exceeding 150 days per calendar year.
It will also be possible to suspend the payment of social security contributions and insurance premiums for the entire duration of the illness or accident up to a maximum of 2 years, in the event that the illness or accident is so serious as to prevent the performance of working activity for more than 60 days. At the end of the suspension, the worker will be required to pay suspended contributions and premiums in a number of monthly installments equal to three times the months of stoppage.
6) Oncological diseases. Periods of certified illness resulting from therapeutic treatments for oncological diseases are equivalent to hospital stay.
7) Pon and Por. Self-employed workers are treated as small entrepreneurs for the purpose of accessing national and regional operational programs drawing on the European structural funds.
With the go-ahead for the new package of measures, "we want to increase the protections for this job in commercial transactions and ensure that the self-employed are not hit by hard contracts that they cannot escape", said Poletti at the end of the CDM, explaining that with the bill, the government aims to counter "abusive clauses and conduct".
AGILE WORK (OR “SMARTWORKING”)
Smart working, the Government explains, "consists of subordinate work which can be performed partly inside the company premises and partly outside, only within the limits of the maximum duration of the daily working hours and weekly, deriving from the law and from collective bargaining".
In this context, the new measures launched by the Executive are three:
1) Economic treatment. For the same tasks performed, the worker has the right to receive economic and regulatory treatment no less than that of employees who work exclusively within the company.
2) Detaxation of the productivity bonus. Even those who work in agile mode will have to be recognized the tax and social security incentives that may be recognized for increases in productivity and efficiency of subordinate work.
3) Health and safety. The employer must also guarantee compliance with health and safety regulations to the worker who carries out the work in smart working mode.
