Request for leave for serious family reasons or unpaid leave (Italy)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in Italian
The PDF you download is in Italian — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
For an employee in Italy asking the employer for unpaid time off: leave for serious family reasons under Italian Law 53/2000, up to two years over a working life, with the job kept, or the unpaid leave (aspettativa) provided by the collective agreement. The letter states the kind of leave and the dates, encloses the supporting documents without describing health data, and asks for a written reply. Sent by registered post, PEC or by hand. In Italian.
- Made for use in Italy
- Last updated October 14, 2026
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When to use this document
- A parent of yours is seriously ill and you want to stop work in Italy for a few months to look after them.
- You want unpaid leave to go abroad with a family member without losing your job.
- You have used up your paid leave and a family situation means you must be away for much longer.
- You need a request for unpaid leave for family reasons to your employer in Italy.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Employee
- Employee's address
- Employee's codice fiscale (Italian tax code)
- How the letter is sent (printed above the recipient)
- Employer
- Employer's postal address (street and number, postcode and town on separate lines)
- City
- Date
- Kind of unpaid leave
- Period from
- Period to
- Reason
Common questions
- What is leave for serious family reasons in Italy?
- A period of unpaid absence, continuous or split, of up to two years over a whole working life, for serious and documented family reasons such as a death or the need to care for a relative (art. 4(2) of Italian Law 53/2000; regulation no. 278/2000). The job is kept, but the period does not count towards seniority or pension unless contributions are bought back, and no other work may be done during the leave: the Court of Cassation upheld the dismissal of someone who did.
- Is unpaid leave an employee's right in Italy?
- Apart from the leave provided by law, such as leave for serious family reasons, unpaid leave (aspettativa) depends on the collective agreement applied or on agreement with the employer: the agreement states who may ask for it, for how long and with what notice. The text of collective agreements can be read free of charge in the CNEL contracts archive. A written request fixes the dates and proves when it was made.
- In Italy, must a request for leave name the relative's illness?
- No. The letter can confine itself to the kind of leave and the dates, with the reason given in general terms; the serious reasons are proved by the documents required by regulation no. 278/2000, enclosed with the letter. The employer must treat those documents as health data protected by the GDPR. That is why the form does not ask for a diagnosis or treatment.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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