Guide - Employment

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3.1 ACCESS TO EMPLOYMENT

  1. General aspects
  2. Residence contract
  3. Assumption

3.1.1 GENERAL ASPECTS

The Italian Republic guarantees equality of treatment and full equality of rights as for Italian workers to all foreign workers and their families, on condition that they reside regularly on the State territory.

Every year the government, with a decree, establishes the number of foreigner that can be admitted on the Italian territory for subordinate employment, self employment, seasonal work, even counting the family reuniting. Other decrees may be approved by the Government within the same year if it is necessary.

Entrance visas and residence permits for employment (even for self employment and seasonal workers) are released within the numbers disposed in the decree. If the decree is not published the Prime Minister can dispose to maintain the levels disposed in the decree of the year before.

To work in Italy the foreigner must be regularly in Italy (with a passport, or an identity document, an entrance visa and a residence permit)

The residence permit for subordinate employment is released in consequence of the residence contract (Contratto di soggiorno).

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3.1.2 RESIDENCE CONTRACT

The residence contract must contain:

  1. the guarantee by the employer of an adequate accommodation
  2. the obligation, for the employer, to pay the travel expanses for the worker's country of orign

The residence contract is signed in the Unique Door for Immigration in the Provincia where the employer has his residence.

The residence permit will have the same duration of the residence contract and however it can never be superior to:

  1. 9 months, for one or many different seasonal contracts;
  2. 1 year, for a fixed term contract;
  3. 2 years, for a no fixed term tem contract;

In order to enter in Italy for a subordinate employment the non-communitarian worker must obtain a visa from the Italian Consulate in his/her country, or in his/her stable residence country.

The residence permit for studies and professional courses can be converted, before its expiry, with the stipulation of a residence contact, in a residence contract for subordinate employment.

The residence permit for familiar reasons allows the access to services for employment in order to establish a subordinate employment.

The residence permit obtained escaping a violence or in consequence of serious environment (Law n°40/98 Art.16) also allows to to services for employment in order to establish a subordinate employment.

The residence permit can be renewed for a duration never superior to the duration of the initial permit.

The foreigner must ask for the renewal of the residence permit to the Questore in the province of his residence, at least 90 days before the expiration in case of a no term contract, at least 60 days before the expiration in case of a fixed term contract, at least 30 days before the expiration in all of the other cases. The renewal will be admitted with the same conditions for an ordinary release.

Loosing a job doesn't mean the revocation of the resident permit for the foreigner and his/her family. The foreigner worker with a residence permit obtained for a subordinate employment who looses his/her job, even in case of voluntary resignation, can try to find another job addressing to public or private services for employment till the natural expiration of his/her residence permit and however (with the exception of seasonal workers) for at least 6 months.

To accede to services for employment the foreigner must exhibit:

  1. The residence permit;
  2. An identity document;
  3. A family certification;
  4. A Residence certification;
  5. Studying or professional certifications
    (The last 3 documents can be substituted by a n auto-certification)

The seasonal worker who can prove 2 following years of employment for seasonal contracts can obtain, in case of a repetition of his/her seasonal employment, a permit for various years. This permit can never have a duration superior to 3 years and must contain the specification, for each year, of the periods for its validity. A new visa will be released every year.

If the foreigner leaves Italy he/she will maintain his/her state insurance rights.

The foreigner can ask for the conversion of professional qualification certificates obtained abroad. Every foreigner can attend to all of the professional qualification courses planned in Italy.

If a worker attends to specific courses organized to help a professional introduction in Italy, he/she aquires a particular preference for the engagements established using the lists in his/her country.

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3.1.3 ASSUMPTION

Foreigners regularly enrolled in public or private placement lists, or who are already working in Italy, can be assumed (like Italian citizens):

The employer has the obligation, at the moment of the worker employment, to give the worker a copy of the contract containing the worker's name and his/her duties. Within 5 days from the assumption the employer must inform the Centre for Employment.

FOREIGNERS WHO DO NOT LIVE IN ITALY

In every province, within the Government Territorial Office (once Prefettura), it is instituted a Unique Door for Immigration which deals with the assumptions of foreigners both with a no fixed term contract and with a fixed contract.

Whoever wants to employ a foreigner resident abroad must present to the Unique Door for Immigration:

  1. a nominative request to obtain a permit to have access to work (nulla-osta al lavoro);
  2. a documentation to prove how to provide to the foreigner accommodation;
  3. the proposal for a residence contract respectful of the National Contract containing the obligation to pay the travel expanses back to the origin country of the worker
  4. A formal obligation to inform about every change affecting the employment relation

If the employer doesn't know the foreigner he/she wants to employ, he/she can ask for nulla-osta al lavoro for a foreigner registered in the lists instituted in conseqyence of Bi-lateral agreements with other countries. He/she will have to present:

  1. a documentation proving to prove how to provide to the foreigner accommodation;
  2. the proposal for a residence contract respectful of the National Contract containing the obligation to pay the travel expanses back to the origin country of the worker

In any case the Unique Door for Immigration will inform the Centre for Employment about the request. The Centre for Employment will divulge the offer on a nationwide scale: if within 20 days there will be no European worker who makes a request for that offer, the Centre will certify the result of the offer to the territorial office, eventually informing the employer of the demands.

The Unique Door for Immigration, after a consultation with the Questore, issues the nulla-osta al lavoro and, after an employer request, sends the documentation (even by internet) to the consular offices. The nulla-osta al lavoro will be effective for 6 months.

Consular offices, after a control, will issue an entry visa containing the tax code of the worker and will inform the Unique Door for Immigration. The foreigner, within 8 days from his/her entrance, must go to the Unique Door for Immigration to sign the residence contract.

IN CASE OF SEASONAL WORKERS

Whoever wants to employ a foreigner resident abroad as a seasonal worker must present to the Unique Door for Immigration a nominative request.

If the employer doesn't know the foreigner the request containing

Must be immediately transmitted to the Centre for Employment to verify, within 5 days, if any Italian or European worker wants to answer to that seasonal offer.

The Unique Door for Immigration, in 10 days and not after 20 days from the request of the employer, issues the authorization.

The seasonal worker, if has always respected the terms of the residence permit, regularly leaving Italy before its expiration, has a priority right to enter in Italy in the following year for seasonal work. A seasonal worker, conditionally to the law, can covert his/her residence permit in a permit for subordinate employment.

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