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Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.
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Reserve Quotas for Disabled Employees and Mass Dismissals
Precedential Decision by Judiciary or Regulatory Agency
Author: Carlo Majer, Partner - Littler Italy
On October 15, 2019, the Italian Supreme Court clarified Article 10 of Law No. 68 of 1999, which protects disabled individuals from dismissal at the end of a collective redundancy procedure. According to the Court, during mass dismissals or in the event of a financial crisis, companies that benefit from salary integration (so-called Cassa integrazione guadagni, CIG) may suspend their obligations to hire disabled employees, except that they cannot dismiss those already hired if the employer violates the quotas reserved for disabled employees.
Hidden Cameras in the Workplace
Precedential Decision by Judiciary or Regulatory Agency
Author: Carlo Majer, Partner - Littler Italy
On October 17, 2019, the Authority on Italian Privacy commented on a recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights, where the court held that an employer could install hidden cameras without previously notifying employees because of well-grounded suspicion of thefts in the workplace and relevant consequential financial losses. The Authority on Italian Privacy pointed out that, within the Italian legal context, the hidden video surveillance would be allowed only as a method of last resort and, in any case, it can never be considered as an ordinary practice.
Right of the Father to Rest Periods in Case of Self-Employed Mother
Precedential Decision by Judiciary or Regulatory Agency
Author: Carlo Majer, Partner - Littler Italy
On November 18, 2019, the Italian Social Security Authority stated that an employee who is a father might benefit from the daily rest time provided for by the law for the first year of the child’s life, regardless of whether the self-employed mother benefits from a maternity allowance. However, when the mother is a self-employed worker, the father cannot take daily rests during the period in which the self-employed mother is on parental leave; and the father is not entitled to “extra” rest hours that the law provides to working fathers for multiple births. These provisions apply to court claims received but not adjudicated, as well as to past events for which the limitation period has not expired or there has been no final judgment.
Video Surveillance: Whose Express Consent Is Required?
Precedential Decision by Judiciary or Regulatory Agency
Author: Carlo Majer, Partner - Littler Italy
On December 17, 2019, the Italian Supreme Court affirmed that, even under a criminal law point of view, employees’ expressed consent does not eliminate the unlawfulness of the employer’s conduct when it installed a video surveillance system without the required trade union agreement or, alternatively, without the authorization of the Territorial Labor Inspectorate, as provided for by Article 4 of Law no. 300/1970. The express consent must come from the employees’ representatives or, alternatively, the Labor Inspectorate, since the concerned employees are “weaker parties” in the employment relationship. This case affirms an earlier statement of the Supreme Court from 2017.
