Domenico Scilipoti: question with written answer 4-08204

in our legal system, the legislative decree n. 66 of 2003 delegates the definition of the average working hours to the national collective labor agreements, which, however, cannot exceed 48 hours per week, including overtime hours, with reference to a working period not exceeding four months ;

the National Collective Labor Agreement for the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Chemical Industry, applicable to drug sales reps, in article 8 (working hours) provides, inter alia, that the average length of working hours, including overtime , cannot exceed the limit of 48 hours calculated as an average, considering the technical and organizational needs of the sector over a 12-month period;

it also provides that the workforce must be sized according to the actual production, workplace and plant safety needs in order to rigorously implement the contractual working hours, allowing the enjoyment of holidays, public holidays, rest periods due , also taking into account the average absenteeism due to morbidity, accidents and other absences;

it is also agreed that the service provided beyond the average weekly working time determined in 247.5 working days per year, assumed equal to eight hours a day, gross of holidays and vacations, is to be considered excessive;

the average weekly working time is 37 hours and 45 minutes;

services exceeding the average weekly working hours and overtime are compensated, in the relevant month, with the wage increases provided for by the national collective labor agreement, with one of the following options:

50 per cent of hourly rates of pay and 50 per cent of compensatory rest;

100 percent compensatory rest;

100 percent hourly wage rate;

furthermore, it is envisaged that the use of excessive or extraordinary services must be of an exceptional nature and must find objective justification in unavoidable, indeferrable needs, of temporary duration and such as not to allow for correlative workforce sizing;

however, it is established that «In relation to the provisions of article 16, paragraphs 1 and 2 of legislative decree no. 66 of 2003, it is agreed that external workers, insofar as they can be assimilated to traveling salesmen or salesmen, are included in the derogation treatment from the regulation of the weekly working time. It is also agreed to assimilate these workers to the personnel referred to in paragraph 5 of article 17 of the legislative decree, n. 66 of 2003 as regards the non-application of the provisions