On 30 June 2024, new provisions on disability, suitable to significantly change the current regulatory framework and will condition company policies for organisational inclusion, will come into force.
Certain regulations contained in the new regulatory framework will take effect from 1 January 2025 within the territories covered by an initial trial phase. As of 1 January 2026, these new regulations will be definitively applied throughout the entire national territory (Legislative Decree 62/2024).
As from 30 June 2024 ‘person with a disability’ will replace the expressions ‘handicapped person’, ‘person with a handicap’, ‘disabled person’ and ‘differently abled’ wherever they occur.
The new definition of ‘person with disabilities’, effective as of 1 January 2025, establishes that ‘a person with a disability is one who has lasting physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with barriers of a different nature, may hinder full and effective participation in the various contexts of life on an equal basis with others, ascertained at the outcome of the basic disability assessment’ (art. 3, par. 1 Law 104/1992).
In a perspective of organisational inclusion of employees with disabilities, the provisions on reasonable accommodation in force as from 30 June 2024 are particularly important (Art. 5-bis Law 104/1992). When the application of the rules in force cannot guarantee the disabled employee the enjoyment and the effective and timely exercise, on an equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, a reasonable accommodation shall be adopted which ‘identifies the necessary, relevant, appropriate and adequate measures and adjustments, which do not impose a disproportionate or excessive burden on the employer’. An employee in need of a high or very high level of support pursuant to Law 104/1992 ‘has the right to request, by means of a specific written request (…) the adoption of a reasonable accommodation, also by formulating a proposal’.
The reasonable accommodation ‘must be necessary, adequate, relevant and appropriate in relation to the extent of the protection to be granted and to the contextual conditions in the actual scenario, as well as compatible with the resources actually available for the purpose’. The assessment carried out by the employer in the light of the request made by the disabled employee is preceded by a (documented) check on ‘the possibility of accepting the proposal that the employee may have submitted’.
In the event that the employer refuses to adopt the reasonable accommodation proposed by the employee, the latter is entitled to:
- take legal action under Article 4 of Law no. 67/2006,
- ask the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to verify any discriminatory conduct.
We remain available for any further clarification.