The Role of Fixed-term Employment Contracts in the Italian Legal System

Beyond some unpredictable situations that have occurred – on the whole the use of fixed-term employment contracts has been used by Italian companies to ensure - especially in periods of economic crisis - the achievement of their production and work objectives through a strategy which sees a gradual inclusion of new employees to be integrated into the workforce – in line with the strategic management of new hires in the company in order to keep pace with the evolution of the market and unpredictable fluctuations in the economy (dare we say covid or energy crisis).

Statistics on employment in Italy from ISTAT (the Italian National Institution of Statistics) confirms the upward trend of this flexible workforce strategy. In fact, ISTAT reported that in December 2023 the growth of employment involving employees on fixed-term contracts grew to an estimated 2,986,000 - and the use of self-employed persons in the workforce grew to an estimated 5,045,000. Overall employment in Italy in December 2023 was an estimated 23,754,000 – a figure which approximately 456,000 more than the same reading a year earlier in December 2022.  This latter number is further broken down into 418,000 permanent employment positions, 42,000 self-employment positions and 5,000 more new fixed-term employment contracts.

Italy has - apart from the numerous emergency labour legislations enacted during the...