ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Michela Bani, Alessandro Paone and Giacomo Bertelli, NIUS Legal and HR Solutions
tion on the protection of workers and the processing of personal data, as set out in Article 4 of the Italian Workers’ Statute and the GDPR.
workplace or request a modification of their work - ing hours. • If the worker is dismissed owing to reasons related to the harassment they have suffered or to their reporting of it, the maximum protection provided for unfair dismissals under Article 18 of the Italian Workers’ Statute will be applied. • As mentioned in 6.9 Other Measures , Article 2087 of the Italian Civil Code requires the employer to take all necessary measures to protect the physi - cal integrity and psychological well-being of the employee. The occurrence of damage (moral, exis - tential and/or biological) resulting from the failure to comply with this legal provision entails the obliga - tion to provide compensation for such damage (similar obligations also arise from the provisions of the Decree on Workplace Safety). This framework of protection, together with continu - ously evolving case law, demonstrates a steady com - mitment to refining the safeguards available to victims, thereby making the protection system increasingly responsive and effective. 8.3 Other Forms of Discrimination and/ or Harassment Including Bullying and/or Mobbing Italian laws on discrimination and harassment are extensive and cover various areas, including gender, race, disability and other protected characteristics. Employers are required to adopt policies and meas - ures to prevent and combat discrimination and har - assment, and also to protect workers who are vic - tims, guaranteeing them the right to protection and assistance. Article 18 of the Italian Workers’ Statute provides the highest level of protection following discriminatory dismissal: “reinstatement in the workplace”. “Dis - criminatory” in this context refers to dismissal based on political beliefs or religious faith, membership in a union or participation in union activities (including the employee’s participation in a strike), as well as reasons related to the race, language, gender, dis - ability, age, sexual orientation or personal beliefs of the employee.
8. Special Cases 8.1 Whistle-Blowing
As discussed in 1.2 Bases , in the absence of spe - cific legislation on HR internal investigations in Italy, the procedures governing such investigations derive their legal foundation “by subtraction” from other dis - ciplines. These include labour law, criminal procedure and – notably – whistle-blowing regulation, which has been extensively addressed and analysed in the pre - ceding sections. As noted, the whistle-blowing framework is gov - erned by the Whistle-Blowing Decree and concerns the protection of individuals who provide information that may lead to the investigation, determination and prosecution of violations of regulations. Therefore, there are no additional specific protections. Where the conditions for applying the provisions of the Whistle- Blowing Decree are met, the individuals involved will benefit from the corresponding rights; otherwise, the ordinary civil law provisions and, where applicable, procedural and criminal law rules will apply. 8.2 Sexual Harassment and/or Violence In Italy, complaints related to sexual harassment and violence are protected by specific regulations that apply in various contexts, both in the workplace and in society. • According to Article 609-bis of the Italian Penal Code, sexual harassment consists of unwanted acts or behaviour of a sexual nature aimed at intimidating or overpowering a person, without their consent. Harassment can be verbal, physical or psychological. • Article 26 of Legislative Decree No 198/2006 (the “Code of Equal Opportunities between Men and Women”), which provides an extensive analysis of workplace harassment scenarios, requires com - panies to adopt preventative measures to avoid sexual harassment and protect the victims. The victim may also ask to be transferred to another
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