With News No. 32/2021, the Inps provided initial indications regarding the exemption for hiring disadvantaged female workers, an exemption that the Budget Law 2021 (see Art. 1, paragraph 16, Law 178/2020) raised from 50 percent to 100 percent for the two-year period 2021 and 2022 and within the limit of 6,000 euros annually.
The most interesting points of the circular issued by the Institute are summarized below.
At the outset, it should be noted that regarding the possibility of the benefit's application, approval by the European Commission is awaited. Therefore, the measure, as of today, is not yet operational.
In a subsequent message, following the completion of the procedural process, the Inps will provide instructions for the use of the legal measure in comment, including in relation to the management of previous periods, as of January 01, 2021 in which this measure takes effect.
The institute, with a broad interpretation of the rule introduced by the Budget Law, recognized as recipients of the benefit not only permanent hires and conversions of a previous facilitated relationship to an indefinite term, but also fixed-term hires.
BENEFICIARY EMPLOYERS
The circular specifies that the incentive can be enjoyed by all private employers, falling under this:
employers who are "entrepreneurs" under Article 2082 of the Civil Code, that is, those who professionally carry out an organized economic activity for the purpose of production or exchange of goods and services. Also included in this classification are public economic entities, as well as public bodies involved in privatization processes (transformation into corporations), regardless of public or private ownership of capital, reclamation consortia and industrial consortia, and moral and ecclesiastical entities;
agricultural employers;
"Non-business" employers, such as cultural, political or trade union associations, voluntary associations, professional firms, etc.
The incentive is not applicable to P.A. entities and domestic employers.
SUBJECTS ELIGIBLE FOR EXEMPTION
By virtue of the referral made by Art. 1 co. 16 of the Budget Law 2021, to Art. 4, paragraphs 9 to 11 of Law No. 92/2012, Inps specifies that the exemption concerns the hiring of disadvantaged female workers..
The notion of "disadvantaged women" includes the following categories (Art. 4, paragraphs 8 to 11, of Law No. 92/2012):
Women aged 50 years or older who have been unemployed for more than 12 months;
women of any age, resident in regions eligible for funding under the European Union Structural Funds who have been without regular paid employment for at least six months. With reference to this category, it is clarified that, in order to meet the requirement, it is necessary that the woman worker be resident in one of the areas identified by the Regional Aid Map 2014-2020, approved by the European Commission on September 16, 2014 and subsequently amended by decision of the same Commission on September 23, 2016. In this regard, it should be noted that there are no time constraints regarding the permanence of the residency requirement in the disadvantaged areas specifically provided for in the aforementioned Charter and that the employment relationship can also take place outside the areas indicated;
women of any age engaged in professions or work activities in economic sectors characterized by a pronounced gender employment gap and "without regular paid employment for at least six months." These sectors and professions referred to in Article 2, point 4(f) of Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014, are, as provided in the Decree of the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, in consultation with the Minister of Economy and Finance, of April 16, 2013, and reiterated in the Circular of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies No. 34/2013, "annually identified by decree of the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, in consultation with the Minister of Economy and Finance," based on the findings acquired by 'lSTAT. For the facilitation to be legitimately recognized, the unemployed woman must be employed either in a sector or profession included in the list of the aforementioned decree;
women of any age, wherever resident and "without regular paid employment for at least twenty-four months." In this regard, it is clarified that, for the purpose of meeting the requirement, it is necessary to consider the period of 24 months prior to the date of recruitment and to verify that in that period the female worker considered has not carried out a subordinate work activity linked to a contract of at least 6 months' duration or a coordinated and continuous collaboration activity (or other work performance referred to in Article 50, paragraph 1, lett. c-bis), of Presidential Decree No. 917 of December 22, 1986, so-called TUIR) whose annual remuneration exceeds €8,145 or, again, a self-employment activity such as to produce gross annual income exceeding €4,800.