Legislative Decree N° 1246 (published on November 10, 2016) includes several administrative simplification measures. In the labor field, the changes can be summarized as follows:
1. The obligation to have fixed-term contracts filed with the Labor Ministry has been eliminated.
The obligation to send a digital or printed copy of fixed-term (temporary) employment contracts to the Labor Ministry within a term of fifteen calendar days counted as from their date of signing, in order for the Labor Ministry to be informed thereof and keep them on file (not to approve them), has been eliminated (Article 73 of the LPCL).
2. Several formal obligations which were to be fulfilled for the hiring of trainees have been eliminated.
a) Companies are no longer obliged to file every year with the Labor Ministry (in the first quarter) their Annual Youth Training Program and, as a result, the legal rule which used to regulate the content of said program (Articles 18 and 19 of Law No. 28518) has also been eliminated, for which reason it is assumed that the obligation to prepare said program no longer exists.
b) Moreover, companies are no longer obliged to send their Plans on Employee Training and Updating of Skills for Reinsertion in the Labor Force (Articles 34 and 35 of Law N° 28518) to the Labor Ministry.
c) It is no longer necessary for the employer to keep a Record of Agreements signed through different Employment Training Options, nor is it obliged to file the agreements it signs with trainees, young people undergoing training, apprentices, etc. with the Labor Ministry (last paragraph of Article 46, and items 2 and 3 of Article 52 of Law N° 28518). When hired by the employer, these people must only appear on the electronic payroll (Article 48 of Law N° 28518), which will replace the Record of Agreement.
3. The obligation to file several documents for hiring foreign employees has been eliminated.
It will no longer be necessary to file the Affidavit that the employer was obliged to file, stating that the employer complied with the percentages established for the hiring of foreign employees (item a) of Article 8 of Legislative Decree N° 689): foreign employees could not exceed 20% of the total number of employees appearing on the payroll, nor could they earn in the aggregate more than 30% of the company’s total payroll (Article 4 of Legislative Decree N° 689). Moreover, it will no longer be necessary to file the professional degree of the employee intended to be hired, nor certificates of employment issued by previous employers or a legalized photocopy of the air ticket in the name of the employee and his/her family members guaranteeing that upon cessation of employment they will go back to their home country or to the country agreed upon with the employer (items c) and d) of Article 8 of Legislative Decree N° 689). However, it does not mean that the employer’s obligation to pay for these tickets has disappeared.