3.3.3.3. Contents

Workers are to apply for the redundancy allowance ("mobility allowance") by filling out a form and submitting it to the INPS within 67 days of being laid off (Art. 4 and 24, Law 223/91).

Blue-collar, white-collar and managerial staff who have been in uninterrupted employment with their present employer for at least 12 months, of which they must have actually been working for 6 months, are entitled to claim the allowance. Outworkers and those employed in producer and worker cooperatives are also entitled to claim.

A further condition of entitlement is that the worker in question is laid off by a firm in one of the following categories:

1. firms drawing special unemployment benefit from the Wage Compensation Fund;

2. firms not affiliated to the Extraordinary Wage Compensation Fund, which employ more than 15 workers and, due to a restriction, conversion or termination of their business activity, intend to lay off at least five workers in each production unit or in several production units within the same province within the space of 120 days.

The following categories of workers are not entitled to the redundancy allowance: executive staff, seasonal workers, temporary staff, those employed on combined work-training contracts, appren-tices and those on fixed-term employment contracts.

3.3.3.4. Institutional support

The redundancy allowance is paid monthly by the INPS according to a procedure laid down by the Ministry of Labour (Decree 142 of 17.2.1993).

3.3.3.5. Financial resources

Firms not active in the construction industry are to make a contribution of 0.3% of the remuneration subject to unemployment benefit contributions to finance the mobility allowance. During the first 12 months the employee is to pay the same contribution rate applying to trainees on his/her mobility allowance (Art. 21, Law 41/86); in 1994 this amounted to 5.84%

3.3.3.6. Duration

During the first 12 months the allowance is the same as the level of special unem-ployment benefit drawn by the worker in the week immediately prior to the termination of the employ-ment relation (or to which he/she would have been entitled); subsequently it is equal to 80% of the unem-ploy-ment benefit serving as a basis for calculation.

On 1 January each year the benefit level is adjusted in line with the inflation allowance for wage- and salary-earners. During the period of entitlement to the redundancy allowance, the employee may claim bonus payments for his/her core family; the maximum family income ceilings set out in the relevant regulations apply, however.

The allowance is available for a maximum of 12 months. In the Mezzogiorno regions the entitlement period is extended to 24 months. Workers aged over 40 (50) can claim the allowance for a maximum of 24 (36) months; in the Mezzogiorno these periods are extended to 36 and 48 months respectively.

The duration of entitlement to the redundancy allowance may not exceed the length of service with the employer. The period of entitlement may be extended ("long-term mobility"), however, in the case of workers laid off between 20.1.1994 and 31.12.1994 by firms in the textile, shoe and related branches, or in areas affected by declining industries (Objective 2 of EU Directive 2081/93), and of workers laid off between 11.3.1993 and 31.12.1994 by firms in the chemical, steel and defence sectors, etc. This benefit is only granted if the existence of surplus labour is attested by the UPLMO (provincial labour and employment office) in the course of the redundancy procedure.

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