Good news on the incentive front for the companies they hire . Employers who in 2018 decide to enter into a permanent contract with a young person within specific age limits could find themselves benefiting from a double benefit : that provided for by the Budget Law 2018 and the one established by the Youth Guarantee program . The two incentives, in fact, by way of derogation from the general rule of non-cumulation with other tax breaks and social security benefits established by both the provisions that govern the rules, can be combined .

However, it is necessary to comply with the conditions and limits of each measure, which in any case have a common rule: the employer must operate in compliance with the general conditions set out in art. 31 of Legislative Decree no. 150/2015 . For the youth employment incentive it is also necessary that the employer in the 6 months preceding the recruitment, has not proceeded, in the same production unit, to individual dismissals for justified objective reason or collective redundancies . This condition is not required for the recruitment of a young NEET (ie who does not work or study), but this measure requires compliance with the de minimis regime .

In both cases, recruitment must take place on a permanent basis, even part time and also in administration, but for young people under Law no. 205/2017 employment with a professional apprenticeship contract is not allowed, but allowed for the employment of NEETs.

There are also different age limits and conditions:

•     18 to 29 years old for young people (34 years only for 2018). The young person must not previously have permanent employment contracts , with the sole exception of the apprenticeship periods not followed by confirmation in the company and of any relationships that have allowed the partial application of the incentive in question, for which the new the employer can benefit from the residual period (so-called portability); 
•     from 16 to 29 years for young people enrolled in the Youth Guarantee program , with the warning that, if the young person is aged between 16 and 24, the limits established by the European Regulation (EU Regulation n.1407) must be respected /2013).

The recruitment can take place even if the limits of the EU regulations have been exceeded, but the incentive can be used only if the employment involves an increase in net employment that must be maintained for the entire duration of the benefit. If the young person is aged between 25 and 29, in addition to the increase in employment, it is required that the young person should be without regular paid employment for at least 6 months or if he / she does not hold a 2nd degree secondary school diploma. or a qualification or diploma of vocational education and training or have completed full-time training for no more than 2 years and has not yet obtained the first regularly paid employment, or is still employed in professions or sectorswhich present a rate of male-female inequality at least 25% higher than the national average.

With the incentive of young people, the employer can enjoy for 36 months the exemption of 50% of social security contributions against him within a threshold of 3,000 euros per year ; for the employment of NEET, however, the exemption is 100% of social security contributions , within an annual ceiling of 8,060 euros and 12 months .

In the lucky case in which all the requirements are presented, for the first 12 months it is therefore possible to use both incentives, applying primarily the partial exemption provided for by the Budget Law 2018 , up to the limit of 3,000 euros set for each month. , for the remaining part , the employment incentive NEET .

From 1 July 2018 , as approved by the Budget Law 2018 , it will no longer be possible to pay cash salaries . Currently the cash payment of salaries, as well as all cash transactions between different subjects, is prohibited if the amount is equal to or higher than 3 thousand euros. This is the limit set by the anti-money laundering legislation in force in our country. With the new financial maneuver, employers are obliged to pay salaries with traceable means . The ratio of the norm is the contrast to the phenomenon used by some entrepreneurs: to make a pay slip higher than the amount actually paid to the employee. The new law establishes that it is forbidden to pay the wage in cash any amount, even less than or equal to 3 thousand euros .

The means of payment allowed , according to c. 910, they are:

•     bank transfer to the account identified by the IBAN code indicated by the worker;
• electronic payment instruments ;
• cash payment at the bank or post office counter where the employer has opened a treasury current account with a payment order;
• issue of a check delivered directly to the worker or his delegate in the case of proven impediment. The delegate can only be the spouse or the cohabitant and the family members in a straight line or collateral, provided they are over 16 years old.

Proof of payment does not constitute proof of payment by the worker on the paycheck , for which proof of payment is provided by the receipt of the transfer, by the photocopy of the check or by another bank or postal receipt. The obligation applies to all employment relationships referred to in art. 2094 of the Civil Code, excluding public employment and domestic work. It is applied regardless of the duration and the methods of execution, to each employment relationship originated from coordinated and continuous collaboration contracts . It applies to employment contracts established in any form by the cooperatives to its members pursuant to Law 3.04.2001, n. 142.

The new rule does not apply , however, for scholarships , for the activities of company director , or even with regard to the payment of compensation for occasional self-employment .

The Government will have to stipulate with the main trade unions of workers and employers, the Italian Banking Association (ABI) and the Poste Italiane company a convention with which to identify the tools to promote the correct application of the law. For employers and customers who violate the traceability regulations, an administrative fine will be applied from 1,000 to 5,000 euros.

The National Labor Inspectorate (INL) provides operational indications on the correct application of the provision referred to in art. 34 of Legislative Decree 81/2001 , concerning the direct execution by the employer of the tasks relating to safety and first aid , including evacuation during emergency situations. Andrea Sterli , lawyer and speaker of Centro Studi Castelli , a business, tax and administrative consultancy company, intervenes to clarify the picture . 

The art. 20, c. 1, lett. g) Legislative Decree 151/2015 has modified the art. 34 of Legislative Decree 81.2008 and, in particular, abrogated the c. 1-bis (introduced by Legislative Decree 106/2009) which allowed the employer to carry out first aid tasks , as well as fire and evacuation prevention, only in companies or production units employing up to 5 workers . 

With the circular n. 1/2018 , the INL decided to provide some operative indications for the correct application of the aforementioned art. 34. In particular, the INL has specified that the faculty, now extended to the employer also employing over 5 employees , to take over the first aid tasksfire prevention and evacuation (with the exclusion of the companies in any case considered to be at risk pursuant to Article 31, paragraph 6), does not mean that the employer can perform these tasks alone, or that he is exempted from specific obligations envisaged (always by the employer) by art. 18 of the same legislative decree. 

Specifically, attention was drawn to a couple of passages of art. 18, which states that the employer has the obligation to “designate the workers in charge of the implementation of fire prevention and fire fighting measures , of evacuation of the workplace in case of serious and immediate danger, rescue, first aid and, in any case, emergency management“(Article 18, paragraph 1, letter b), and has the obligation to” take the necessary measures for the purposes of fire prevention and evacuation of workplaces, as well as measures for the case of serious and immediate danger “ . These measures must be appropriate to the nature of the activity , the size of the company or production unit and the number of people present “(Article 18, paragraph 1, letter t). A reference is made to art. 42, c. 2, according to which ” for the purposes of the designations referred to in art. 18, c. 1, lett. b), the employer takes into account the size of the company and the specific risks of the company or production unit “(Article 43, paragraph 2).

In light of the regulatory framework, the fact that the employer, after adequate training, can carry out the activities described above, does not imply that he can operate in total autonomy in the performance of these tasks: the employer, in fact, must use the workers in charge of the implementation of the aforementioned measures , which must be designated in an adequate and sufficient number, in compliance with the provisions of art. 43, c. 2 Legislative Decree 81/2008. 

After the repeal of the vouchers , one of the possible alternatives for not losing an effective and flexible tool for the life of the entrepreneur is the occasional self-employment ex art 2222 CC . Let’s try to clarify with a deepening of Giorgia Granati , DTL consultant for the Centro Studi Castelli . 

One of the aspects of self-employment benefits pursuant to Article 2222 of the Civil Code, with VAT number or withholding tax, concerns the significant elements in order to exclude the desire to conceal the relationshipto the Public Administration. One of these elements is the documentation of a social security nature , where the ratio exceeds 5 thousand euros of total annual compensation. 

Regarding the other elements, the circular of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies No. 38/2010 was pronounced , which specified the relevance, for the purposes of the non-applicability of the maxi sanction , of ” valid fiscal documentation ” where the provision of occasional self-employment pursuant to art. 2222 CC is retrained as a subordinate work serviceduring the inspection.  

It should be specified, on the point, that ” valid tax documentation “, such as to exclude the application of the maxi sanction is meant the required tax documentation (payment of withholding taxes through F24 , accounting records and statement of mod 770 ) produced in relation to the period under investigation . 

Therefore, even self-employment for which a regular withholding tax has been issued , transcribed in the mandatory tax documentation, can not be considered a black-and-white job., despite the redevelopment of work performance as a subordinate work service: in this case, it should not, therefore, come to the application of the maxi sanction. 

In particular, circular no. 38/2010 has thus specified: ” the inspection staff will impose the maxi sanction in the absence of documentation useful for a verification of the alleged autonomy of the relationship “. This documentation must obviously refer to a period prior to the assessment : an aspect specified by art. 4, c. 1, lett. a) and b) L. 138/2010 (which amended Article 3 of Decree Law No. 12/2002, converted into Law 73/2002), determining the application of the so-called “maxi sanction”in the case of employment of subordinated employees without prior notification of the establishment of the relationship by the private employer “, unless the previously fulfilled contributory obligations, the intention is not to conceal the relationship, even if it is a question of different qualification “. 

The rationale of the law is to link the application of the maxi sanction to the existence of services of a subordinate nature, taken in place without compliance with the obligations of disclosure required by law or in the absence of the related contributory obligations that still highlight the desire not to conceal the relationship. Confirming, if necessary, the nature of the additional sanctioning measure of the possible maxi sanction, as it does not replace, but is added to all the other penalties provided for by the law in cases of irregular constitution of the employment relationship. 

It must not possess specific certifications or registrations in specific registers, but an in- depth knowledge of the legislationand practice on privacy . It is the Data Protection Officer , key figure introduced by the new European regulation on the protection of personal data – known to most as GDPR . Through an adequate professionalism, the DPO (acronym of Data Protection Officer) must offer the company the necessary advice to design, verify and maintain an organized system of personal data management . Furthermore, it must help the holder to adopt a complex of appropriate measures and guarantees with regard to the context. His actions must be carried out in complete independence and autonomy , without receiving instructions and reporting directly to the summits.

THE DUTIES OF THE DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

The Regulation n. 2016/679 on privacy does not contain indications on the professional qualities of the Data Protection Officer – or even Data Protection Officer (RPD). What we know today about this important figure is the result of a series of interpretations, not without misunderstandings. We know for sure that the DPO must:

• enforce the rules on privacy through the verification and continuous and constant monitoring of how the data are processed; 
•     know the legislation concerning data protection both at national and European level; 
•     know the GDPR regulations ; 
• have expertise in the field of legal , IT and assessment of risk ;

The Data Protection Manager may be chosen from within the company organization chart , or an external figure may be preferred . This jurisdiction must not be in conflict of interest . It is for this reason that the Regulation in question says that it can not be the CEO of the company, or the administrative, health and operational manager, as well as that of human resources. And finally, the Data Protection Officer will have to work in complete autonomy, without receiving any kind of education on his activities.

WHEN IT IS OBLIGATORY TO IDENTIFY A DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

The legislation on the protection of personal data will come into force on 25 May next and, for some companies, the figure of the DPO will be mandatory . There are 3 hypotheses in which this figure must necessarily be assumed:

• in the event that the processing of data is performed by a public body or the Public Administration ; 
• when it comes to companies that deal systematically with large-scale personal data , for which continuous monitoring and observation over time is required. That is when the treatment is the core business of the company, even if related. For example, the core of a hospital is patient health, but to best perform this work, data processing becomes paramount. Therefore, a hospital is obliged to designate a DPO; 
• when it comes to activities that deal with itsensitive or judicial data on a large scale.

In general, the designation of a DPO is always recommended. Companies can decide in total autonomy whether to elect it or not. In this case, even if the appointment is voluntary , the Data Protection Officer must follow the same rules and will have the same duties as the mandatory one.

Once identified, the DPO must be nominated through a contract. The appointment must be communicated to the Corporate Audit Authority, or to the Privacy Guarantor .

In March 2018, with a circular letter , the National Labor Inspectorate (INL) wanted to provide operational indications , shared with the Ministry of Labor, INPS and INAIL, to its own inspection staff on the subject of collaborations made by family members in the craft enterprise , agricultural or commercial , for the purposes of the social security scheme . The circular identifies orientation parameters and case studies useful for the verification of the occasional nature of family collaborations. The need to provide specific indications and clarifications arises from the observed discrepancies in the assessment, during surveillance activities, of the indices of habituality and prevalence of work activity rendered by collaborators and family assistants, in particular in relation to commercial activities.

The INL specifies, however, that the activities performed by collaborators or family members must necessarily be evaluated in their specificity and therefore always through an analysis on a case-by-case basis. For example, the services provided by the pensioner family who does not guarantee a continuous presence, or those rendered by the family member who already has full-time employment, can be traced back to forms of temporally circumscribed solidaristic needs and consequently have a character of occasionality, with the consequent exclusion of the obligation to register for the relative social security management.

In other cases, the INL has decided to provide its inspection staff with an assessment index of occasionality of the servicethat is similar to the criteria adopted by the legislator for the craft sector (90 days in the year) and is based on the orientation of the jurisprudence of legitimacy for the commerce sector, with regard to the requirements of habitability and prevalence of the provision as per art. 2 of the Law n. 613/1966. The index identified is also considered useful in relation to the tourism sector , bearing in mind that, if the performance is performed within seasonal activities, the same index (90 days in the year) will obviously be recalculated according to the effective duration of the ‘seasonal activity (for example, for a seasonal duration of three months, 90: 365 x 90 = 22 days).

The indications provided by the INL with the circular letter of March 2018 refer to the social security obligations towards INPS. As regards the insurance protection against accidents at work and occupational diseases managed by INAIL for family workers in the sectors of crafts, agriculture and commerce , the clarifications contained in the previous circular letter no. 14184 of the Ministry of Labor of 5.08.2013, to which explicit reference must be made.

In any case, it should be remembered that the assessment criteria identified are not intended in absolute terms and that, if you do not do so, the inspection reports must be promptly motivated in order to reconstruct the ratio in terms of habitual or prevalent work performance found.