Temporary contracts during the emergency period

New extension for workers employed by staffing agencies on fixed-term assignments with user companies: the entry into force of the limit of use for a maximum of 24 months is postponed to 30 June 2024.

With Article 12-quinquies of the law converting the so-called 'Energy Decree' (Decree-Law No. 21 of 2022, converted with amendments by Law No. 51 of 2022), it was further extended until 30 June 2024, the possibility for temporary employment agencies to send temporary workers for periods exceeding 24 months without this leading to the establishment of an employment relationship with an indefinite term for the user.

It should be noted that the temporary leasing of workers hired permanently by agencies is a particular form of 'labour lending', whereby the agency and the client agree on the temporary leasing of workers, which the agency then carries out with the use of personnel it hired permanently.

The employment agency hires the worker indefinitely, benefiting from the protections offered by collective bargaining in the sector and enjoying a contract that lasts longer than a single mission. The user companies, for their part, can cover temporary labour needs without the need to commit themselves for more extended periods than the one agreed upon in the commercial contract with the agency.

The novelty introduced by the legislation above implies that the rules set out in Legislative Decree No. 81 of 2015, as amended by the so-called 'Dignity Decree', will be applied only as of 1 July 2024. Such rules provide that after 24 months of using the leased employees, the user must employ the latter with a permanent contract.

We recall that the last term of validity of the waiver of the ordinary rules was on 31 December 2022. It had been introduced at the time of the conversion into law of the so-called 'Decreto Sostegni ter' (Decree-Law No. 4 of 2022) in the wake of the emergency regulations introduced to cope with the Covid-2019 emergency.

The emergency regulations have, in fact, significantly eased the numerous constraints that, since the aforementioned Dignity Decree has been approved, have been placed on fixed-term contracts and temporary employment contracts with the declared aim of, on the one hand, keeping the occupational levels and, on the other, allowing the flexibility needed by companies in a period of considerable organisational and financial stress.

The same employers' associations and workers' representatives did not fail to emphasise how the reintroduction of the legal limits described above, even if postponed, will inevitably entail the risk of the loss of employment for a very large number of fixed-term workers because of the turnover generated by this legal constraint.

Therefore, in our view, the extension at issue, rather than a remedy to solve the problem, seems to have the sole effect of postponing an effective solution. In general, this is yet another opportunity missed by the legislator to depart from a rather demagogic vision of the labour leasing contract, which to 'fight job insecurity' exposes temporary workers to the loss of employment having extensive legal and collective protections.