SOCIAL SAFETY NETS IN WARTIME

La first novelty concerns the Ordinary Wages Guarantee Fund (CIGO), a social security cushion typical of the industry sector and some specific related sectors. 

The new paragraph 11-quinquies provides that in order to cope with situations of special economic hardship in the year 2022, employers covered by the CIGO (former Art. 10 Legislative Decree 148/2015) is granted wage subsidy for No. 26 weeks usable until the December 31, 2022. 

The above, however, is subject to one condition: That the applicant employers have reached the duration limits stipulated and identified by Legislative Decree 148/2015. 

At this point, some reflections are deemed necessary. 

Not many companies, as of today, will be able to "boast" the fulfillment of this condition. On the contrary, in fact, most will find themselves in the opposite situation and, therefore, will remain excluded from the possibility of accessing the additional weeks provided by the decree under discussion.  

From this consideration, a question inevitably arises. The large number of companies that have not taken advantage of the maximum limit provided and that, because of the war, find themselves in difficulty, what causes will they be able to resort to in order to be granted the social cushion?

In truth, this question may also be asked of enterprises that meet all the requirements of DL 21/2022.

CIGO, as a reminder, intervenes in the following cases:

1. business situations due to transitory events and not the fault of the company or employees, including seasonal bad weather; 
2. temporary market situations.

In detail, the causal factors that could abstractly be considered applicable to the situation in which most companies find themselves today are the lack/lack of orders, shortage of raw materials or market crisis. 

The market crisis, thus the causation related to the performance of the market or commodity sector in which the enterprise falls, may certainly be viable for some enterprises, solving the problem only partially. 

Moreover, it should be noted that wage supplement applications submitted telematically must be supplemented, for each reason, with appropriate documentation proving the state in which the enterprise is and the difficulties it is experiencing. The preliminary investigation carried out by INPS, however, does not always lead to an order granting the application (indeed, these days it is increasingly difficult). 

Another issue to be evaluated could be related to the co-presence of certain factors such as the unquestionable possibility of producing (since, for example, orders are already in the portfolio) and the concomitant nonconvenience in doing so (perhaps related to the increase in energy costs). Indeed, the cost of production (related to energy, gas, etc.) may in fact become so high as to make it counterproductive for a firm to continue production activity, seeing any achievable profit decrease. 

What possibilities for these companies? The hope is that, in view of the absence of ad hoc regulatory intervention (and which could well have been accommodated in the decree in question), INPS will review, by its own circular, the ways of "adjusting" the integrable causes that can be used to date (and established in 2016).

The second novelty, on the other hand, concerns only those companies, recipients of the Wage Supplementation Fund, having up to 15 employees and framed in the ATECO codes in Annex 1 of the decree. 

Such companies are eligible for an additional period of wage supplementation for a maximum of 8 weeks usable until December 31, 2022. 

The condition, again, is that the same applicant employers have completely exhausted the duration limits of benefits recognized by Legislative Decree 148/2015. 

Below are the sectors and ATECO codes involved:

The size limit and the ATECO codes identified by the rule greatly restrict its scope of application, excluding a large number of businesses operating in contexts that, because of the war, will be affected by the reduced influx of customers. One thinks, merely by way of example, of those restaurant chains or amusement parks (having well over 15 employees on their payrolls) which, because of the discouragement brought about by the war, will be affected by the sharp reduction in tourism. 

To support these enterprises, the decree under discussion intervened by exempting them from paying the additional contribution. Specifically, employers with the ATECO code listed in Annex A of the decree under consideration who suspend or reduce their work activity from March 22, 2022 to May 31, 2022 are exempt:

Net of this, it is not clear why there was no desire to give positive and substantive legal recognition to the conflict at hand. There is a risk, with Decree 21/2022, of granting supplements and reductions that cannot be concretely enjoyed, given that the real need of both industry and tourism is represented by the ease of access to what is already provided for by Legislative Decree 148/2015: an achievable goal if war (and covid, let's be clear) were instituted as causal factors for access to supplements.