INPS, with Circular n. 197 of 2 December 2015, provided clarifications about the new rules regarding ordinary and extraordinary redundancy fund introduced by Legislative Decree. N. 148/2015 .

The most important innovations are:

1) The ordinary redundancy fund treatment and extraordinary treatment, only in cases where assistance was requested for corporate crisis, are also extended to workers with an apprenticeship contract;

2) the redundancy fund treatment can be applied to those workers who have a working seniority lower than 90 days of actual work, considering the days off, holidays, injury and maternity leave;

3) The maximum duration of redundancy fund treatment may not exceed 24 months (30 months for companies in the construction industry) to be calculated in a five-year period, with reference to each production unit;

4) The social security contribution rates intended to finance the ordinary redundancy fund have been redefined depending on the sectors, based on the actual use, while it remained unchanged  for companies that fall within the scope of the extraordinary redundancy fund;

5) In case of suspension or reduction of employment in the period between September 24th and the date of publication of the above mentioned circular, applications can be submitted within 15 days from December 2, 2015.

With subsequent circular INPS will provide indications about both contributions for workers with an apprenticeship contract and  the new additional contribution calculation.