Lawyer Monthly Magazine -December 2019 Edition

above also apply in case of transfer of business, while there is the legal requirement to trigger the above unions’ information procedure only where the transferor is staffed with more than 15 employees, regardless the number of employees actually employed at the business which is planned to be transferred. When are transfers not covered by the regulation? Unless otherwise provided for by collective bargaining agreements, the transferor and the transferee are charged with no information obligations Moreover, the transferor and the transferee are jointly liable with respect to those sums owed to the transferor’s employees as at the transfer date and these - if their working conditions are significantly changed within a 3-month term running as from the transfer date - are entitled to resign with immediate effect, thus being entitled to the payment of the indemnity in lieu of notice which would apply in case of dismissal not for cause. Lastly, those dismissals relying on the transfer qualify as null and void, so that employees are entitled to have their employment relationships continuing with the transferee as well as to be paid with those salaries which would have been accrued as from the dismissal date (a minimum cap amounting to five months of salary is provided for). When does the regulation apply for businesses? Those protections outlined What is TUPE? TUPE regulations in Italy include both a unions’ information procedure - which must be triggered in advance by both the transferor and the transferee at least 25 days before the transfer agreement or any binding agreement between the transferor and the transferee is executed (this, upon the unions’ written request hereof, may lead to a joint examination)-, as well as several protections which the transferor’s employees are entitled to, as specified below. Firstly, the employment relationships of the transferor’s employees automatically continue - by operation of law - with the transferee and they are also entitled to maintain any rights arising from such employment relationships. In particular, the transferee has to grant the transferor’s employees with any entitlements set forth by the collective bargaining agreements which apply to their employment relationships as at the transfer date, until their expiry, unless such agreements are replaced by those which apply to the employment agreements of the transferee’s employees. TUPE REGULATIONS What Is TUPE and When Does It Apply? 70 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | DEC 2019 Expert Insight By Angelo Zambelli, Grimaldi Studio Legale "In case of transfers triggered by a share deal, neither the unions’ information procedure nor the employees’ protections under the TUPE regulations apply (as there is no change in the employer)."