De Luca & Partners > Milan, Italy > Firm Profile

De Luca & Partners > Firm Profile

De Luca & Partners was founded in 1976 by Vincenzo De Luca and consists of a team of 24 people.

The law firm is specialized in employment law and carries out its consultation, assistance activity, including for all aspects of litigation management for national and multinational companies from all commodity sectors, having a specific and exclusive expertise in the following practice areas: labour and employment law, commercial agency law, health and safety in the workplace, anti bribery law (Law 231/01) and GDPR – data protection.

Specialisation, confidentiality, professionalism, independence, efficiency, a pro-active attitude, attention to clients’ needs and transparency: these are the values that have driven De Luca & Partner’s activities since 1976.

Thanks to its in-depth knowledge of laws and practices gained in over 45 years of experience, as well as its ability to explain simply and clearly Italian employment law rules (which are often complex) the firm frequently handles cross-border transactions involving multiple jurisdictions and provides advice to headquarters, legal affairs directors and human resource managers working outside of Italy.

The firm relies on a solid network of counterparts for transactions requiring activity in Italy and around the world.

The firm advises over 400 clients, with whom it enjoys long-term professional relationships due to an ability to adapt to their ever-changing needs. Clients are either large, or medium and small sized Italian and foreign companies from a variety of business industries such as: audit, banking, chemical, design, fashion, furniture, insurance, metal mechanical, retail, food and drink, media and marketing, software, technology and telecommunications, energy, automobiles and parts, etc.

Typically, De Luca & Partners advises international corporations in every single step of the set up of their operations in Italy, as well as in their day to day activity, reorganization and even closure.

De Luca & Partners is partner with:

• HR Capital S.r.l.
• British Chamber of Commerce for Italy
• Invest in Tuscany
• Camera di Commercio Italo-Germanica
• TMA
• RoadJob

De Luca & Partners is an ongoing partner with:

• National and international law firms;
• Private equity companies and investment funds;
• Auditing firms

in complex M&A and restructuring transactions during the acquisition, restructuring and disposal phases of investments in companies operating in Italy.

De Luca & Partners’ Think Tank manages and coordinates research, training (internal and external) and editorial activities on labour law matters, protection of personal data and administrative liability of entities.

De Luca & Partners invests in researching and disseminating employment law material and for this reason collaborates with Il Sole 24 Ore and with the main employment law publications. Its partners and associates are often invited as speakers at training courses, workshops and seminars on employment law issues in Italy and abroad.

Main areas of practice: De Luca & Partners is specialised in providing advice to companies exclusively in the employment law field. The decision to specialise in this area in the middle of the 1970s has been a winning one and it remains the key point of the firm’s development strategy.

The partners and associates of the firm provide services in the following areas of practice:

Employment and labour: The lawyers of the firm regularly advice corporations and institutions in any and all the issues they face in their day-to-day activity, in order to allow them to concentrate on their core businesses and achieve their targets. The firm normally assists its clients in ordinary issues as well as:

• stock option plans;
• retention plans;
• company policies;
• disciplinary procedures;
• grievance procedures.

Industrial relations and restructurings: Due to the specific expertise of the founder and to the skills of its team, the firm, since its foundation, has always been regularly involved in reorganisations and restructurings, including trade unions negotiations. The firm’s experience in restructuring, trade union and business relations and in redundancy procedures and solidarity contracts is well recognised and, for this reason, the firm has long been commissioned by the Regional Agency for Education, Training and Employment of Lombardy – ARIFL (for its acronym in Italian) for the restructuring and use of redundancy arrangements.

Employment within corporate and M&A: De Luca & Partners also works closely with a number of Law firms – and occasionally even for law firms having an employment law department – private equity companies and investment funds where it is typically involved in managing labour aspects of M&A corporate transactions and restructuring of work organisations.

Labour and dispute resolution: Partners and associates of the firm are always committed to achieving Clients’ goals, preventing litigation when opportune. In any case, legal aid is one of their firm’s strong areas of competence, with a dedicated department and an impeccable track record.

The areas of intervention of the firm also include the right of agency, the right of trade union relations, the right of health and safety at work, the right of social security and immigration law.

As part of its specialisation in Labour Law, the firm provides its clients with advice on the protection of personal data and the administrative liability of entities under Legislative Decree 231/01.

Lawyer Profiles

Photo	Name	Position	Profile
	Alberto De Luca	As partner at De Luca & Partners, Alberto is regularly involved –…	View Profile
	Enrico De Luca	Enrico De Luca is specializes in employment, labour law, including compensation &…	View Profile
	Vincenzo De Luca	Vincenzo De Luca, recognised as one of the top experts in his…	View Profile
	Vittorio De Luca	Vittorio De Luca is regularly involved – as expert for employment and…	View Profile

Focus On

Employment in Italy: fulfilments due by the employers

Any foreign employer willing to hire personnel in Italy is obliged to put in place several fulfilments that can be summarized as follows:

• registering with the Italian labour authorities (I.e., INAIL, INPS and Local employment office);
• running a monthly payroll in compliance with the law and to the chosen National collective bargaining agreement (“NCBA”), if any;
• submitting monthly and annual reports to labour and social security authorities to declare salaries paid, taxes and social contributions withheld, etc.

As far as periodic fulfilments are concerned, the employer must consider some main statements that must be submitted to Italian authorities with the help of a payroll provider, concerning both social security contributions and tax declarations.

All the above fulfilments are due regardless the employer is foreign- or Italian-based and also when the employment relationship is not governed by Italian law – in principle, it is sufficient that the employment relationship takes place even partially in Italy to make them mandatory.

To observe all the above fulfilments, it must be considered that foreign employers willing to hire personnel in Italy are obliged to an additional and preemptive fulfilment, that is the application for the tax code for both the company and its legal representative.

Please, furthermore consider that fines apply in case of late or omitted of the above registrations or reporting. Should the fulfilments at issue be omitted, a substantial fine for undeclared work applies in case of assessment by labour authorities (so called “maxi sanzione”).

Finally, under certain conditions, the employment of employees in Italy may involve a risk of assessment of a permanent establishment from a corporate tax standpoint. To this purpose, referring to a corporate tax expert is recommendable.

Employment regulation: law and NCBA

A) Italian Law and NCBA

Basic rules regarding rights and obligations of employer-employee relationship in Italy can be found in the Constitution, in the Italian Civil Code (“Codice Civile”), which includes a special section on employment matters, and in the Workers’ Statute (“Statuto dei Lavoratori”), i.e., Law no. 300/1970 as modified by subsequent legislation.

Terms and conditions of employment are also governed by NCBA(s) signed periodically between the trade unions and the employers’ associations of the same sector.

It is however worth mentioning that the NCBA(s) are not statutory sources of law but are private contracts between trade unions and employers’ associations and are not legally binding for all employers. In principle, they are not binding, as employers – with the exception of those that are members of the employers’ associations – are free to decide whether to have the employment contracts governed by national collective agreements, or not.

Notwithstanding the above, the application of a NCBA has the advantage of establishing a set of common rules (e.g., notice period, length of the probationary period, sickness leave and working hours etc.) for companies operating in the same industry, e.g., trade, credit, metal industry, chemical industry, etc.

Moreover, unanimous case law identifies the treatment provided by the collective agreement entered into for a specific industry as the minimum and mandatory standard treatment applicable to the employees concerned.

B) Professional categories and classification of the employees

According to Italian Law, the employees are divided in the following four professional categories (from the highest to the lowest):

• Executives (“Dirigenti”).
• Middle managers (“Quadri”);
• White-collar employees (“Impiegati”) and
• Blue-collar employees (“Operai”).

Moreover, according to NCBA(s) provisions, each White-Collar and Blue-Collar employee is enrolled into a specific contractual level, depending on the duties carried out and the grade of expertise.

Specific treatments are provided for Executives (“Dirigenti”) by the NCBA(s) for Executives which differ from the NCBA(s) applicable to the employees enrolled in the other professional categories. Main differences concern the regulation of holidays and paid leaves, sickness and injury treatments, notice period and protections against dismissal.

C) Employment conditions and “protected” events

Before the effective approval of the employment relationship, the employee and employer may set a trial period. The statutory maximum duration of trial periods are the following:

• 3 months, for employees not assigned to managing functions;
• 6 months, for all other employees.

However, the probation period duration is commonly set in the relevant NCBA depending on the category of the employment.

During the trial period, each party may freely terminate the employment relationship at any time, without any notice, obligation or payment of the relevant indemnity in lieu.

As far as the economic treatments are concerned, Italian law does not give a statutory definition of “wages” and “salary”.

According to Article 36 of the Italian Constitution, employees are entitled to receive a salary in proportion to the quality and quantity of their work and, in any case, enough to guarantee a decent lifestyle for themselves and their family.

Minimum wages for each contractual level are usually set out by sector in the relevant national collective agreements.

The minimum salary of the NCBA(s) is updated regularly (almost every two years). Apart from these minimum lower limits, the parties are free to determine the amount of salary.

Under Italian law, remuneration is granted in thirteen monthly installments. The additional 13^th instalment (“tredicesima”) is paid out each year along with the December salary.

Some NCBA(s) provide for a 14^th monthly installment, normally paid in June.

For income tax and social security purposes, any compensation granted to the employee within the scope of the employment relationship, including compensation in kind, is considered wages (this does not include a few limited exceptions, such as expenses reimbursement).

In addition to the above, Italian Law provides for some “protected” periods during which the work activity is suspended due to reasons such as sickness, injuries at work, marriage, maternity, paternity, etc. In this respect, specific leaves are provided for by law and NCBA provisions, and the relevant indemnities due to the employees are quantified accordingly. In most cases, INPS provides the employee with a leave indemnity, to which the employer contributes to a certain percentage, depending on the case.

Social security and employment costs

The payment of social security contribution is one of the duties of any company employing workers in Italy. Indeed, employees are currently entitled to a 33% pension contribution rate, plus a further 3-5% contribution rate to fund “protected events” such as illness, maternity and unemployment that is generally referred to as “minor contributions”.

In principle, about 1/3 of the global contribution percentage is charged on the employee and directly withheld by the employer through the monthly payslip, whereas the remaining 2/3 is borne by the employer. Moreover, it must be observed that under certain circumstances the contribution rates applies within an annual “cap”, yearly determined by the INPS and currently slightly higher than EUR 110,000.

In addition to social security contributions, the employer must bear further costs related to the employment, for instance:

• the work accidents insurance, whose cost depends on the employees’ gross salaries, the kind of activity carried out by the workforce and the related potential risks;
• the payment of contributions due to complementary healthcare funds or private pension scheme that could be provided for by the applicable NCBA;
• the severance indemnity payment (“trattamento di fine rapporto” or “TFR”, in Italian parlance) due to the employee upon the employment termination.

Transfer to Italy and relevant fulfilments due by the employees

1. EU regulations and Italian residency

In force of EU treaties, citizens of any Member State and their family may freely move and reside in Italy subject to some specific requirements.

The right of residency is in fact recognized for those (i) who work in Italy, (ii) who are following a course of study and (iii) who have sufficient resources to stay in Italy and health insurance or other risk cover.

EU citizens who have resided legally and continuously for five years in the Italian territory may be entitled to permanent residence.

Any Italian employer who intends to establish a subordinate, fixed-term or open-ended, seasonal or domestic employment relationship with an EU worker has to follow the ordinary procedures provided for the employment of an Italian citizen.

According to the principle of free movement, in order to be employed in our country, EU citizens must be in possession of (i) a valid identity document (e.g. identity card or passport) and (ii) the Italian tax code, which can be requested personally at the competent territorial office of the Italian Revenue Agency.

2. Extra-EU workers

As per Italian law, entrance in our country of extra-EU personnel due to reasons of subordinate employment takes place within the framework of labour entry quotas, as defined by Legislative Decree No. 286 of 1998 (also known as the “Italian Immigration Code”). Indeed, the number of extra-EU employees who may enter Italy regularly each year for work is subject to specific limits, depending on the provisions early stated by the so called “Flows Decree”.

Otherwise, Article 27 of the Italian Immigration Code provides for the possibility of hiring extra-EU employees outside the labour entry quotas above illustrated regarding workers who are defined as “highly specialized”.

This category of employees may be entitled to a special working visa, the so called “Blue Card”: in this regard, the hiring of extra-EU personnel by Italian employers is subject to several requirements on the part of the worker, such as a high education qualification and a high professional profile.