Italy: government and social partners reach deal to manage the end of the redundancy freeze

With the freeze on redundancies (see articles n° 12558 and 12536) coming to an end on 30 June in Italy’s industry and agriculture sectors, an agreement was signed on 29 June – after 7 hours of talks – by the government, the Cgil, Cisl and Uil trade unions, the employer organisation Confindustria, and various SME associations. The social partners agreed on a joint declaration to strive to avoid a wave of job cuts following the lifting of the measure. According to this text, the social partners “commit to recommending the use” of technical and partial unemployment “as an alternative” to terminating job contracts. In other words, companies in industry have committed to resorting to redundancies only as a last resort, after having exhausted all available social solutions. Meanwhile in the textile, fashion and footwear sectors, which have been heavily impacted by the crisis, the Council of Ministers, the Italian government’s executive organ, has extended the redundancy freeze until 31 October by means of a decree. Although it is still too early to gauge the impact of gradually lifting the freeze on redundancies, a monitoring body led by the government and trade unions has been set up to assess how the employment situation and social risks evolve. Italy is the only European country to have introduced a universal freeze on redundancies from February 2020.