Employment Lawyers in Vicenza, Italy | Labour Law Department 
Dimarco & Partners International Law Firm

Our Employment Lawyers in Vicenza, are specialized in the field of  Labour Law. We assist corporate entites, employees and managers involved in labour issues in the whole italian territory. During the last years the Labour Law changed several times (Fornero reform in the year 2012,  in 2015 the Jobs Act made a strong revolution, and again on 07.08.2018 the government issued the "decreto dignità" converted in law). The last event that changed the labour law in Italy was a sentence of the Constitutional Court, in September 2018.
Dimarco & Partners, and its team of qualified italian lawyers, offers a wide range of legal services in the field of labour law as individual dismissals, collective dismissals, executive dismissals, contracts, retirement incentives, conciliations and litigation. We provide also consultancy to Corporates, as during transactions, in mergers and acquisitions and in in the transfers of business. In these operations, that often involve a corporate reorganization and a review of the workforce, the role of the lawyers becomes crucial to proceed correctly. We provide a customised assistance for corporates, for managers and individuals.​

I. LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN FAVOUR OF CORPORATE ENTITIES:
​Once a foreigner investor enters in the italian market, he needs a qualified assistance in the matter of employment law. Italian rules are complicates and there are many specific laws that a company shall respect in order to avoid administrative fines, criminal proceedings and disputes in front of the labour authorities.
Our employment Lawyers in Vicenza  provide the following services to Corporates entities:

•     Company reorganization
•     Employees dismissals and retirement incentives
•     Advice on employment contracts, permanents and temporary ones
•     Appeal dismissals promoted by employees or management
•     Representation in judicial litigation
•     Court disputes against employees or agents
•     Conciliation in front of the Unions and DTL (Direzione Territoriale del Lavoro)
•     Advice on collective dismissals
•     Consultancy about agency contracts
•     Advice about permanent contracts
•     Assistance and representation in front of the labour inspectorate
•     Assistance in court proceedings promoted by employees concerning wage differences
•     Asssistance in workplace injuries
•     Drafting letters of dismissal
•     Drafting disciplinary claims
•     Assistance in cases of unlawful transfer of employees
•     Assistance in dismissal of a manager
•     Assistance in cases of mergers and acquisitions
•     Collective dismissals of Managers
•     Assistance in transfer of business and transactions

II. LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN FAVOUR OF DISMISSED EXECUTIVES:
Our team of employment lawyers in Vicenza has many years of experience in assisting executives of national and multinational companies in the procedures of appealing the dismissals received from the employer. The role of manager is assigned to those who are considered the alter ego of the employer and they normally have the autonomous decision making powers to achieve the objectives of the company. This category, although it  has some peculiarities, is included in the definition of employee contained in the art. 2095 of the Italian Civil Code.
Our Lawyers, specialized in labour law, provide assistance in favor of executive managers located in Vicenza according to a method inspired by the procedural accuracy, following a predefined process and through the following steps:

• Analysis of the documentation provided by the Manager who received a dimissal letter in Vicenza:

In this first phase our Labour lawyers check the documentation (including the applicable national labour contract) and provide a first evaluation of the case, explaining to the Client any possible profile of unlawfulness of the dismissal letter from a formal or procedural point of view. They also evaluate any violation that could be denounced to the Labour Inspectorate.

•     Challenging the unlawful dismissal:

If after the preliminary analysis it turns out that the dismissal is unlawful, the manager has 60 days from the receipt of the dismissal letter to challenge it. The challenge of the dismissal has to be drafted with accuracy, as it cannot be changed in a second moment.

•     Phase of negotiation and conciliation between the Executive and the Company

It happens often that the employer, after receiving the appeal of the dismissal, contacts us to define the controversy in an amicable way. In this phase our italian attorneys try to obtain the most favourable conditions for their Client. If the proposal of the company is accepted by our Client we draft the conciliation deed. If the agreement is not reached, the next phase will start.

•     Judicial phase - Litigation in front of the Labour Court of Vicenza

If it is not possible to reach a transaction in the previous phase, our Labour Lawyers will sue the company in front of the Court of Vicenza in order to obtain the right compensation according to the Law.

•     Settlement or judgment

During the court trial, our Lawyers will try to reach a settlement with the company (the judge will try the conciliation in the first court hearing) or, if it will not be possible, they will represent the Client during the whole procedure. If the procedure ends with a favourable judgement, we will enforce the decision through the notification of any possible attachment to the goods/properties/bank accounts of the company.

​III. LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN FAVOUR OF INDIVIDUALS:
Our Law Firm is also specialized in assisting individuals dimissed from their work place. The contestation must be carried out with extreme precision, indicating all its unlawful element within 60 days from the receipt of the dismissal letter. This is a perentory tem and if it is not observed, the employee loses all the rights to sue the employer. This terms is not generally applied for oral dismissals. There are are various reasons to fire a worker and we can underline the aspects of the different kinds of dimissal:
A) DIMISSAL WITHOUT NOTICE - DISMISSAL FOR JUST CAUSE (licenziamento per giusta causa):
Under the article. 2119 of the Italian Civil Code, the working relationship can be terminated at any moment without notice, whenever something occurs which prevents the continuation, even temporaly, of the working relationship. It demands a significant violation of the employee.
Sometimes it is not easy to distinguish the differences between the dimissal for just case and the dismissal for infraction. The distinction between the two figures is only quantitative, not qualitative (the just cause belongs to extremely relevant misconducts, meanwhile less important misconduts will bring to dismissal for infractions. As we will analyze during this chapter, there is a relevant difference between the consecuences of these two kinds of dismissals.
According to art. 5 Law 604/1966 the employer should prove the misconduct of the employee and not viceversa. In case the employer doesn't manage to prove the relevant misconduct, the dismissal has to be considered unlawful with the following possible consecuences:

• If the misconduct exists but it is not considered enough relevant to bring to dismissal for just cause, the employee, according to the Jobs Act, will receive an indemnity of 2 months for every year of work made in the company, with a minimum of 4 months and a maximum of 24 months. The "decree Digniity - Decreto Dignità", that became effective on 07.08.2018, amended this provision establishing a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 36 months -. 

• If the material fact that brought to the termination for just cause does not exist (for example the employee is fired because he stole a computer but in the end the computer was not stolen), the judge will order to the employer to reinstate the employee and to pay him a compensation for the damages equal to his salary from the day of the dismissal untill the day of the effective reinstatement, with a maximum of 12 months of salary.

B) DIMISSAL FOR SUBJECTIVE JUSTIFIED REASONS (licenziamento per giustificato motivo soggettivo):
This type of dismissal requires a significant breach of the worker (ex. Art. 3 Law 604/1966). This figure differs from the termination for just cause (art. 2119 cc) for the following profiles:

• the misconduct of the worker is less serious than the one rquired in the dismissal for just cause;
• the notice period has always to be paid, differently from the dismissals for just cause.

As a general rule, in case of unlawful dimissals for subjective justified reasons, the judge cannot order the reinstatement of the employee in the workplace. The compensation provided to the worker in case of unlawful termination is an indemnity of 2 months for every year of work made in the company of the employer, with a minimum of 4 months and a maximum of 24 months. 
The "decree Digniity - Decreto Dignità", that became effective on 07.08.2018, amended this provision establishing a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 36 months -. ​
However, if the material fact that brought to the termination does not exist (for example the employee is fired because he stole a computer but in the end the computer was not stolen by him), the judge will order to the employer to reinstate the employee and to pay him a compensation for the damages equal to his salary from the day of the dismissal till the day of the effective reinstatement, with a maximum of 12 months of salary.
C) DISCRIMINATORY DISMISSAL (licenziamento per motivi discriminatori):
Under the Article n.15, Law 300/1970 - Workers' Statute - a dismissal is considered discriminatory if the reason depends from one of the following reasons:
1.     membership or will to join a trade union;
2.     if the employer decides to mody the tasks of the employee, to transfer him, to adopt disciplinary measures because the worker joins a trade union or partecipates to a strike.
3.     if there is one of the following discriminations: political, religious, racial, of sex, handicap, age, sexual orientation or belief.
Disciminations can be classified in two typologies according to art. 25, Legislative Decree no. 198/2006:
A. Direct discrimination any provision, criterion, practice, act, pact or behavior that produces a discrimination of an employee or a less favourable treatment. 
B. Indirect discrimination: any provision, criterion, practice, act, pact or behavior apparently neutral that bring a particular disadvantage of some employees.
The consecuences of the disciminatory dismissals are the following ones:

• payment of an indemnity to the worker based on the last salary for any month between the dimissal and the reintegration with a minimum of five months.
• reinstatement of the employee: in this case,, described by art. 18 c.1,  the employer will reinstate the worker. Anyway, the employee can choose alternatively an indemnity of 15 months of salary.  In order to choose this second option the worker should communicate it to the employer withing 30 days from the judgement or, before the judgement,  within 30 days from the decision of the employer to reinstate the employee . If the employee doesn't come back to his workplace in the term of 30 days from the invitation of the worker, the labour contract is considered terminated.
• The employer will have to pay the social security contributions from the date of dismissal to the daye of the reinstatement ordered by the Court.

D) DIMISSALS FOR CRISIS OF THE COMPANY (licenziamento per giustificato motivo oggettivo):
The employer can also order the dismissal for objective justified reasons. This type of dismissal is one of the most common in case the companies try to reduce the business costs and the cost of the workers.  According to article 3 of the Law 604/1966, this kind of dismissals are determined by reasons related mainly to production and work (re)organization.
There are two mainly hypotheses to dismiss an employee for objective justified reasons:

• overstaffing: the company states that there are too many employees compared to the current needs of the company - determined by the market crisis, or by the adoption of new technologies or by the development of more efficient production processes.
• situations related to the worker: if, for example, an employee becomes disable after an accident and it is impossible for him to continue his duties inside the company.

In the process the employer should prove the existence of the reason of the dismissals and the direct relationship between the economic reasons and the dismissal notified to the worker. In any case the employer, if there is a possibility to hire the worker in a different position inside the company, has always the duty to purpose it to the employee (cd . obligation to repechage) or the dismissals are considered unlawful.
Please note that for all the cases above, except the disciminatatory dismissals, the Constitutional Court, on 26.09.2018, decided that the criterion of the years of service in the company is not constitutional. That is why now the Court has discretional powers to establish the indemnities between a minimum of 6 months of salary and a maximum of 36 months, not taking in consideration only the years of service in the company.

As for the protection of the worker we offer the following legal services in Vicenza:

• challenging the dismissal
• litigation in front of the labour courts
• conciliations before the unions and DTL
• negotiations for incentives
• assistance in the collective redundancies
• disputes regarding agency contracts
• mobbing and compensation for damage
• debt Collection of TFR
• debt collection of wage differences
• assistance in disciplinary proceedings
• assistance against unlawful transfer
• assistance in work off the books - black work.

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