From 2017, tax visits to state employees on sick leave will no longer be entrusted to the local health authorities, but exclusively to INPS, as is already the case in the private sector. This is one of the innovations against absenteeism in the public administration envisaged by the Madia reform (the enabling law stopped in November by the Consulta for a procedural defect). The measure will find its place in the new Consolidated Law on public employment, itself contained in a legislative decree that the government is expected to approve on February 16 or 17.
TIMETABLES AND METHODS OF THE NEW TAX VISITS
Tax visits may be ordered ex officio by INPS or requested by the Public Administration. Harmonization between the public and private sectors is also envisaged as regards the times of the inspections. Today, Public Administration employees can receive tax visits in wider time slots than those envisaged for private individuals (9-13 and 15-18 versus 10-12 and 17-19), but two equal intervals of three hours will soon be established in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. The investigations can take place "systematically and repetitively" and the INPS computer database will allow targeted checks.
SUSPICIOUS ABSENCES
Another novelty included in the draft of the new Consolidated Act aims to discourage absences due to illness in the most strategic (and suspicious) periods, i.e. before and after weekends or in correspondence with bridges and peaks of service. The law, still to be defined in detail, should also provide for a cut in the ancillary salary for all office staff in the event of higher-than-normal absence rates.
THE NUMBERS AT PLAY
Based on data from the State General Accounting Office, in 2015 alone the state workers totaled 30.024.838 days of absence due to illness. On average, just over 9 per person. If leave, absences from work linked to law 104, strikes and various permits are added to the bill, the total increases by more than double, reaching 19,3 days per person. The difference with the same figure for private sector workers (13) is almost 50 percent.
