Italy: survey shows that workers employed under ‘permanent contracts with rising levels of protection’ are no more likely to have their contracts terminated than those hired under ‘classic’ employment contracts

At a time when some political parties (including the Five Star Movement) have been seeking a review of the well-known Article 18 Workers Statute, which is presented as making individual employment termination difficult, a survey has been published showing that those hired on employment contracts ‘with rising levels of protection’ as instituted in 2015 under the Jobs Act (see our article n°8763), and supposed to facilitate individual employment termination during the first three years of hire, have not actually run any higher risk of employment termination than workers hired under regular permanent contracts. The research (here) by the l’Osservatorio Statistico dei Consulenti del Lavoro (Lavoro Statistics and Consulting Observatory – from the National Council of the Association of Labor Legal Consultants) compared employment histories of those hired on permanent employment contracts with rising levels of protection since 2015 with those hired on regular permanent contracts between 2011 and 2014. The survey shows that 39 months after the initial hire 39.3% of those on the newer type of contracts were still employed and this compared with 33.4% in 2014 for those on regular permanent contracts alongside Article 18 protection. Thus the Jobs Act intended exemption from social charges that prompted a sizeable wave of recruitment during the period 2015-2016 has not especially determined workers’ employment outcomes: the risk of employment termination at 39 months since initial hire is almost the same irrespective of social charges exemptions (i.e. between those with and without exemptions). Thus, “The equation of contract with rising levels of employment protection – easier employment termination’ appears to be unfounded,” the survey concluded.