Job-saving measures for 4 million cancer patients

The green light has arrived for the job-saving regulations for cancer patients. The Senate has in fact definitively approved the bill on "job preservation for cancer patients". The regulation, voted across the board by all groups, concerns "subjects affected by cancer diseases or disabling and chronic diseases, including rare ones" and gives the right to leave or suspension of self-employed activity.

For employees, after the leave there is a "priority in the conclusion of individual smart working agreements" and there is also an "establishment of a fund for graduation awards dedicated to the memory of patients affected by oncological diseases".

The funding provided for by the law, which will apply starting from January 1, 2026, is equal to 20.9 million euros for 2026, with a gradual increase from year to year until 2035, when the funding will come into force with 25.2 million per year. The bill was approved by the Chamber last March and was immediately considered a significant turning point by patient associations.

The law provides that public or private employees affected by oncological diseases or disabling, chronic or rare diseases, which cause a degree of disability equal to or greater than 74% can request a period of leave, continuous or split, not exceeding 24 months.

During the leave period, the employee keeps his job, is not entitled to pay and cannot carry out any type of work activity. This is an important change because in the past many workers were fired at the end of the six months, during which they were entitled to keep their job. In light of the new rules, however, the worker can ask to be absent for a further 18 months without pay but with the guarantee of keeping his job. The law also provides that at the end of the leave period the worker can have priority access to the agile working method, "where the work performance allows it".

There is also an increase of 10 hours, compared to the 8 hours previously foreseen, of paid leave for all fragile patients subject to visits and close examinations. For the additional hours of leave, the discipline foreseen for cases of serious pathologies that require life-saving therapies will apply and workers "are entitled to an economic compensation determined in the measures and according to the rules established by the legislation in force on illness".

Finally, a fund with an endowment of 2 million euros per year starting in 2026 has been established at the Ministry of University and Research for degree awards in health-related subjects, named in memory of patients who have been affected by oncological diseases.