ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Angelo Zambelli, Barbara Grasselli and Alberto Testi, Zambelli & Partners
the employee, with the amount being determined at its discretion. 8.3 Digitalisation Since 2014, the Italian Ministry of Justice has been actively involved in the digitisation of documents, document management, and notification processes, in line with both European Union and Italian regula - tions, to facilitate the implementation of the telematic civil trial. As part of these efforts, hearings, including public ones, can now be conducted via remote audiovisual links. This may be ordered by the court when the phys - ical presence of individuals other than the lawyers, parties, public prosecutor, and the judge’s assistants is unnecessary. The court’s decision must be com - municated to the parties at least 15 days before the hearing. Any party may request, within five days of this communication, that the hearing be held in person. The court will then assess the importance of the par - ties’ presence and issue a non-appealable decree within five days. The Decree may order the hearing to be held in person for those who requested it, while allowing other parties to participate remotely via audi - ovisual links. In addition, on 27 October 2020, the Italian Supreme Court signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the Digitisation of Documents in Civil Trials. This protocol enabled the digital handling of documents that had already been filed in hard copy before the Supreme Court.
anti-union behaviour, and the Counsellor for Equal Opportunities can commence a lawsuit in the event of collective discrimination in the workplace. The labour trial is subject to a strict procedure. In particular, each party is required to include all the argumentation and evidence requests in the first brief submitted to the court. 9.2 Alternative Dispute Resolution Labour claims may be submitted to arbitration: • during settlement negotiations, when the parties may jointly delegate the dispute’s resolution to the Local Employment Office through arbitration; • in accordance with the procedures set out by the applicable NCBA; and • before an arbitration court specifically appointed upon agreement between the parties. In principle, arbitration is optional, so each party has the right to bring an ordinary action before the compe - tent labour court. As a consequence, employers may not compel employees to arbitrate claims. The dispute may be referred to arbitrators only if the parties: • enter into an arbitration agreement after the dis - pute has arisen; or • enter into an arbitration clause before the dispute has arisen. The above arbitration clause is only valid and effective provided that: • the applicable NCBA allows the parties to execute such a clause; • it is entered into by the parties after the expiry of the probation period, or, if no trial period is provid - ed, after thirty days of the commencement of the employment relationship; • the clause is certified by the competent administra - tive bodies (“ Commissioni di Certificazione ”); and • it does not concern issues relating to employment termination. Labour arbitration is informal, designed to achieve conventional effects akin to a settlement. Disputes
9. Dispute Resolution 9.1 Litigation
Labour-related matters are subject to a specific trial which is different from the ordinary trial used for civil and commercial matters. In most cases, employees file employment claims on an individual basis. Howev - er, there are instances where multiple employees may collectively pursue a single claim against their employ - er to secure a common right. Furthermore, specific labour claims can be filed by “collective actors”. From this perspective, a trade union can bring a claim for
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