Italy: from 23 October, AI hiring or firing requires a human decision-maker

Legislative Decree No. 179 of 7 October 2026 was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale (General Series No. 234) on 8 October. It enters into force on 23 October 2026. It adapts Italian law to the AI Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689. Its Chapter III, devoted to AI in education, professions, work, health and administration, contains the rule on employer decisions.

The text of the articles was not available on the Gazzetta Ufficiale website or on Normattiva as of 19 October 2026. The content described below therefore follows two concordant analyses published on 13 October: that of EcNews, the legal information website of publisher Euroconference, and the note from the Milan office of A&O Shearman.

A person with real authority for every final decision

The rule targets any employer that uses an AI system in decision-making processes related to the employment relationship. Final decisions on its establishment, modification or termination cannot be taken "esclusivamente sulla base di un trattamento automatizzato" (exclusively on the basis of automated processing), according to EcNews. Disciplinary sanctions and performance evaluations are included. The final decision rests with a natural person with "effettivo e autonomo" power, not "merely formal". A&O Shearman speaks of "real and independent" decision-making authority (translated from English).

The sanction is nullity. According to EcNews, a dismissal adopted in violation of this rule "è nullo", and other employer decisions that disregard it are also void. A&O Shearman writes that the law expressly declares them null and of no effect.

Three obligations accompany the decision. Before any processing, the employer informs employees in accordance with Article 1-bis of Legislative Decree No. 152 of 1997. On request, the employee obtains, through the intervention of a person, an "intelligible motivation" (motivazione intelligibile) of the decision, with the weight of the AI system and its main parameters. The safeguards of Articles 13, 15 and 22 of the GDPR remain applicable.

Two departures from Article 22 of the GDPR

Article 22 of the GDPR, applicable since May 2018, already protects against any decision "based solely on automated processing" that significantly affects the person. It admits three exceptions: contract, law and explicit consent. ActuIA detailed its application to HR tools in its article on consulting the CSE before deploying AI.

The Italian decree departs from it first on consent. It does not constitute an exception, according to both EcNews and A&O Shearman. An employee who accepts the processing therefore does not cover a decision without a real decision-maker.

The second departure concerns the sanction. A violation of Article 22 exposes to administrative fines. Uber was thus fined 824,990,000 euros by the Dutch authority for deactivating driver accounts without human intervention, according to the CNIL (France's data protection authority) report of 24 August 2026. In Italy, it is the HR decision itself that falls.

Candidate screening remains outside the scope. Candidate search and selection activities are not final decisions, according to both analyses. A&O Shearman specifies that the exclusion covers CV screening, even when a candidate is not selected for the next stage. Article 22 of the GDPR continues to apply if this screening is fully automated.

Platform work directive: human decision required, transposition by 2 December 2026

The same requirement appears in Directive (EU) 2024/2831 on platform work, which entered into force on 1 December 2024. Its Article 10(5) reserves to a human being any decision to restrict, suspend or terminate the contractual relationship or the account of a person working through a platform. The same applies to any other decision causing equivalent harm.

Member States must adopt the necessary national provisions by 2 December 2026 at the latest, according to Article 29. The same date triggers the legal presumption of an employment relationship provided for by the directive, including for contractual relationships still ongoing on that day (Article 5(6)).

In a reply published in the Official Journal on 21 July 2026 to MP Ségolène Amiot (LFI-NFP), the Ministry of Labour and Solidarity said it was "fully committed to its transposition". In February 2026 it appointed a consultation mission of three qualified individuals, whose conclusions were "expected before the end of the 3rd quarter of 2026". The reply cites neither a bill nor a timetable.

In the French Senate, a bill not limited to platforms

In France, the closest rule appears in Bill No. 919, tabled in the Senate on 24 July 2026 by Olivier Jacquin, Pascal Savoldelli and Monique Lubin to transpose the directive. Its Article 6 proposes to create in the Labour Code an Article L. 1222-3-1, whose last paragraph provides: "No disciplinary sanction may be imposed by the employer by the automatic application of a result obtained by algorithm."

The letter of the text is not limited to platforms. The new article would be inserted after Article L. 1222-3, which governs the professional evaluation methods of any employee. It would cover any automated decision or decision-support system "producing impacts on the behaviours, choices or legal situations of workers". The proposed Article L. 1222-3-3 moreover names "an employer or a digital labour platform". Read literally, the text would therefore apply to all employers if adopted as is.

The proposed Article L. 1222-3-2 organises an appeal. The person concerned would submit written observations. Then, "a new reasoned decision is taken by a human being, which entirely replaces the first". Its grounds "may not rely on the results of automated processing". Article 6 does not set a specific sanction. Article 12, specific to platforms, proposes that no suspension, deactivation or reduction of access to tasks may rest exclusively on automated algorithmic processing.

Human decision in five texts

The HR requirements of the AI Act, postponed to 2 December 2027 by omnibus 2026/1744 (see ActuIA's calendar), arrive 405 days after the Italian rule.

What a French group employing in Italy checks before 23 October

EcNews reports adaptation deadlines for other articles of the decree, in April and October 2027. It mentions none for this rule. The obligations described by the two analyses translate into six checkpoints:

• identify the HR procedures of Italian entities where a tool produces a score, ranking or recommendation: annual evaluation, sanction, transfer or contract modification, dismissal, final hiring decision;
• designate for each a person who has the power to depart from the recommendation, and verify that they exercise it;
• keep a record of what the tool proposed, what the person decided and their reasons;
• prepare the intelligible motivation due on request, with the role of the AI and its main parameters;
• verify that the prior information provided for by Article 1-bis of Decree No. 152 of 1997 has been given;
• remove any clause that would make the employee's consent a cover.

On the French side, the next deadline is 2 December 2026. The transposition texts identified as of 19 October 2026 are two bills: the Senate one and Bill No. 3081, tabled in the National Assembly on 23 July 2026, whose content could not be consulted.

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