Sick Leave, Holidays and Days Off in Italy: Rights of a Ukrainian Worker

Illness: what to do on day one

A Ukrainian who works in Italy on the books has exactly the same labour rights as an Italian: the right to be sick without losing the job over it. But that right only works if the procedure is followed from day one. The core rule: the employer must be told about the absence before the shift starts, not after colleagues have already started calling. The method of notification is usually spelled out in the contract or internal rules — a phone call, a message to the shift supervisor, sometimes a specific email address. If an employee simply fails to show up and says nothing, the employer may treat it as unjustified absence, even if a sick certificate turns up later.

Feeling unwell is not, on its own, certified sick leave until a doctor has recorded it. Proof of illness in Italy is not a paper slip in your pocket, it is the electronic record in the INPS system — the certificato di malattia telematico. It is issued by the family doctor (medico di famiglia) or the night and weekend service (guardia medica). The doctor enters the diagnosis and the period of incapacity directly into the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale system, and the document becomes visible automatically to both employer and INPS — there is no paper form left to carry around.

The INPS medical inspection service can check on a worker at home, at the address recorded in the system. If a person actually lives elsewhere, or has moved and never updated the record, the inspecting doctor may find no one there — and that counts against the worker, even if the illness was real.

How to get a sick certificate step by step

The first step is always contact with a doctor — the family doctor or the on-call service, depending on the time of day. The doctor examines the patient (except in certain cases of extending a certificate already issued) and, if there are grounds, issues the certificato telematico directly in the system: the worker does not need to carry a single sheet of paper anywhere. The company receives notification automatically, usually the same day, either through its own INPS portal access or through a payroll agency.

It is enough to send the employer the protocol number — that is all a company needs to verify the document in the system. Sending the diagnosis itself is not a good idea: it is medical confidentiality, and the employer only ever sees the fact of incapacity and its dates.

• If the illness lasts longer than the first forecast, an extension is needed — a new visit and certificate marked as a continuation, otherwise from the previous end date the person is treated as simply absent without justification.
• Backdated certificates are generally not issued — the start date in the document is what the system recognises.
• If illness begins during a short trip to Ukraine, a certificate issued there is not automatically equivalent to the telematic one — check in advance how it will be recognised, and whether a translation is needed, to avoid losing those days as paid leave.

Who pays for sick days and workplace injuries

This is where most of the confusion lives: there is no single Italy-wide formula for "the employer pays this much, the state pays that much." How paid sick days split between the employer and INPS, the amount of compensation, and the day from which it starts accruing are all set by the sector's collective agreement — the CCNL — that applies to the worker, and it differs between industry, retail, hospitality, construction or domestic work. The name of the applicable CCNL is printed on the payslip (busta paga) — that is where to check who pays what, and how much, in your specific case.

A workplace injury stands apart — it does not go through ordinary INPS sick leave, but through INAIL, the insurance scheme for workplace accidents. The key rule: an accident must be reported to the employer as a workplace injury immediately, from day one. If the worker stays silent at first and then goes to the family doctor as if it were an ordinary illness, the company and INAIL may later refuse to recognise it as a workplace injury — a different, usually more favourable, compensation route that is hard to reconstruct after the fact.

Another concept worth knowing is comporto: the period during which illness protects a worker from dismissal. While it has not run out, an employer cannot dismiss someone purely for a prolonged sickness absence; once exhausted, the employer gains the right to dismiss for that reason. The length of comporto is set by the CCNL and depends on the sector and often seniority; usually all sick days within a given period are added together, not just one episode. The exact number of days for your role has to be looked up in the applicable agreement.

While on sick leave, the INPS inspection service can carry out a home visit during the so-called fasce di reperibilità — time bands set by law, revised more than once in recent years, during which a sick worker must be at the address on record. The exact boundaries should be checked against the rule in force at the time. If the worker is not found at home without a valid reason, compensation can be reduced or refused.

Ferie: the annual paid leave

Annual paid leave (ferie) is a right separate from sick leave, guaranteed by the Civil Code as a minimum that the CCNL almost always improves on. The key point: ferie cannot be replaced with money instead of actual rest while the employment relationship continues. A cash equivalent for unused days is only allowed on dismissal or termination, once it is physically impossible to actually take them.

The timing of when leave must be taken is not universal either. The law sets out a principle: part of the ferie must be used within the calendar year itself, and the rest within a following period whose length is set by the CCNL. Leave cannot be accumulated indefinitely — after a certain point unused days may be forfeited or become subject to other rules. The exact deadlines for carrying leave forward (ferie residue) should be checked in the applicable agreement or with HR, not based on a previous employer's practice.

• Leave dates are agreed between worker and employer; as a rule the employer cannot unilaterally send someone on leave without notice, but the worker cannot take leave whenever they feel like it either.
• An illness beginning during already-approved leave can, under certain conditions, interrupt it and turn into sick leave instead.
• Dismissal or the end of a fixed-term contract does not "burn" unused ferie — it must be paid out in the final settlement.

ROL and permessi: extra time off

Besides ferie, most CCNL provide for another kind of paid free time — ROL (Riduzione Orario di Lavoro) and permessi. This is not the same as leave: they accrue by the hour or the day as compensation for the fact that the actual schedule exceeds the agreement's base weekly hours, evening out that extra load with free time over the year.

ROL and permessi are used more flexibly than ferie — for a doctor's visit, personal errands, a shortened day in a given week. How many hours or days accrue per year, and how they can be taken, is again set by the specific CCNL — no single figure here either, the same for a construction worker, a shop assistant or a hotel housekeeper.

For a worker not fluent in reading an Italian payslip, ROL and permessi often look like confusing small print. They are real money and real time, accumulating month after month, and on dismissal the unused balance must be paid out just like ferie. Companies with sloppy records sometimes "lose" precisely this part of the payslip.

Congedo parentale, a sick child, bereavement leave

Families have their own set of guaranteed leaves, separate from the worker's own illness. Congedo parentale is parental leave, available to both parents after the compulsory maternity or paternity leave ends, during the child's early years; the deadlines, age limit and level of pay are set by legislation and can change, so the current limits are best checked directly with INPS or HR when you need them.

Separately, there is the right to stay away from work because of a child's illness (malattia del figlio), confirmed by a paediatrician along the same logic as the telematic certificate; the number of paid, or at least protected, days depends on the child's age and the rules in force at the time.

For families with a member who has a disability, there are separate permessi under the law supporting people with disabilities ("permessi legge 104") — extra paid days per year for care; the right requires proof of the relative's status and, as a rule, arrangement with INPS in advance.

There are also two short forms of leave often forgotten: leave for serious family circumstances, and leave following the death of a close relative (lutto) — both limited and requiring proof of the reason. Separately there is aspettativa non retribuita — unpaid leave for personal needs, which the employer may, and sometimes must, grant, but without pay.

How we help protect these rights

On paper these rights look clear: a doctor issues the sick certificate, comporto protects against dismissal, ferie belong to everyone, ROL and permessi accrue on their own. In practice, a Ukrainian working in Italy without perfect language skills and without the habit of reading their own payslip runs into a gap between the rules and reality — and usually loses out through not knowing the details, not because the rights are absent. We regularly see the same situations: an employer "forgets" ferie on dismissal, pays less sick leave than the CCNL requires, classifies a workplace injury as an ordinary illness to avoid the INAIL route, or does not record the absence at all when the worker agreed to work without a written contract.

That last case is the riskiest of all. A worker without a written contract, or working "off the books," has nothing to bring to INPS or INAIL in case of illness or injury: no official employment record, no employer obliged to issue documents, no basis for a sick certificate in the system. Any offer to "work for now without paperwork" should be treated as a direct loss of every right in this article, not a minor inconvenience.

We help at every one of these stages. We start by checking the contract and which CCNL it names: without that, it is impossible to say how many sick days are paid, how long comporto lasts, and how much ferie and permessi belong to a specific person. If an employer paid less than owed for sick leave, we calculate the shortfall and prepare a formal demand, and where needed a complaint to the Ispettorato Nazionale del Lavoro or representation in a labour dispute. If a workplace injury was pushed through as an ordinary illness, we help gather evidence that the event happened at work and pursue recognition through INAIL. For workers whose employment is still undeclared, we assess what evidence can be collected and how to obtain legal status quickly.

We also help calculate the final settlement on dismissal: checking whether unused ferie, ROL and permessi are included, and whether sick leave was accounted for correctly, then preparing a formal demand if the amount was understated. It is worth starting with a check of how your health insurance and SSN registration is set up — the entire chain of sick certificates runs through it. For wage-shortfall claims, we have prepared a practical employer wage claim checklist. If the situation concerns residence status or a work permit, see our migration services. A consultation can be booked through the form on the site, by sending a copy of the contract and the payslip.

Frequently asked questions

Can I go on sick leave without seeing a doctor in person?

No, a doctor must examine the patient to issue the certificato telematico; exceptions mostly apply to extending a certificate already issued. A phone call alone is usually not enough for the first certificate.

My employer says they never received my sick certificate — what should I do?

Show the protocol number if you kept it, and confirm the document exists in the INPS system; if needed, contact the doctor who issued it. An employer's denial does not cancel the fact that the electronic document exists.

Can I travel to Ukraine while on sick leave?

This is a risky move: being away from the recorded address during the reperibilità time bands can be treated as an unjustified breach without a valid excuse and proof. Before travelling, check the rules for your specific illness and timeframe.

I was dismissed while I was ill. Is that legal?

While the period protected by comporto is still running, dismissal on grounds of illness alone is usually unlawful; once it ends, with the length set by the applicable CCNL, the employer gains the right to dismiss for that reason. Each case needs checking individually.

I don't have a written employment contract. Am I entitled to sick leave and ferie?

Formally, the right to work in safe conditions always exists, but without official registration it is impossible to use the INPS or INAIL system in case of illness or injury. The most important step is to legalise the employment relationship quickly, rather than waiting for an illness or injury to happen.

Illness, a workplace injury, or simply wanting to finally use accumulated leave should never put a job or a family's income in doubt. Italian labour law provides plenty of tools for that — from the telematic sick certificate to comporto, from ferie to congedo parentale — but none work automatically for someone who does not know their own CCNL or agreed to work without documents. Knowing your contract, and checking your payslip on time, remains the simplest way to make sure these rights really protect you.

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