The "Cura Italia" Decree Law no. 18 of March 17, 2020, (available here) has introduced important measures to strengthen financial support for families, workers and businesses to cope with the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency.

In order to provide financial support to workers and businesses, the new emergency provisions also provide income support safeguards for the suspension or reduction of work through the extended use of social safety nets. The Cassa integrazione in deroga (CIGD, Exceptional Redundancy Fund), governed by Article 22 of the new "Cura Italia" Decree, is of paramount importance as it may be requested by employers who do not fall within the scope of the Redundancy Fund, the Wage Subsidies Fund or the Solidarity Funds.

In particular, applications for the Wage Subsidies Fund shall be submitted exclusively to the regions and autonomous provinces concerned, which will carry out the investigation in the chronological order of submission. Subsequently, the regions will send the concession decree and the list of beneficiaries to INPS electronically.

As mentioned by INPS in Message no. 1287 of March 20, 2020, (available here), the CIGD is granted through a decree of the regions and autonomous provinces concerned, subject to a trade union agreement that can also be concluded electronically with the trade unions at national level, an agreement that is not required for employers with less than five employees.

The task of allocating between the regions and the autonomous provinces the resources allocated for the payment of the CIGD provided for by Article 22 of the "Cura Italia" Decree has been entrusted to one or more decrees of the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, in agreement with the Minister of Economy and Finance.

On March 24, 2020, the first Ministerial Decree (available here) was issued, allocating funds for around €1.3 billion. The allocation was made on the basis of a table indicating the resources allocated to each region and to the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano considering the number of workers potentially benefiting from the CIGD.

It is interesting to note that in the case of a crisis resulting from the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency involving production units of the same employer located in five or more regions or autonomous provinces, the CIGD is recognized directly by the Ministry of Labor (and not by the individual regions or provinces) within the limit of €120 million.

Moreover, the Regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna (former "Red Zone"), for the purposes of the CIGD referred to in the previous Decree Law no. 9/2020, may adopt the same procedures provided for by Article 22, paragraph 1, of the "Cura Italia" Decree. Therefore, the same regions may authorize the use of the CIGD with a single measure for a total period of up to 13 weeks. However, for employers with more than five employees, the agreement entered into with the trade unions at national level remains fundamental for the application for admission.

To this end, we provide a detailed list of the agreements entered into by the various regions to date for the activation of the Exceptional Redundancy Fund provided for by Decree Law no. 18 of March 17, 2020: