AI Act and Italian labor law can trigger dual compliance for workplace AI

Studio Marzani & Partners says Italian employers using AI to manage or monitor staff may need to comply with both the EU AI Act and Article 4 of the Workers’ Statute when the tools also enable remote workplace monitoring. The overlap affects HR systems, worker information duties and, in some cases, union agreement or labor inspector approval.

Why it matters: - Italian companies using AI in HR may face a dual compliance track, with obligations under the EU AI Act and Article 4 of the Workers’ Statute. - The issue matters most when AI tools do more than automate HR tasks and also allow remote monitoring of workers’ activity. - Employers that miss the overlap risk using systems without the right labor-law approvals, worker notices or privacy safeguards.

What happened: - Studio Marzani & Partners analyzed when AI tools used to manage or monitor personnel can trigger Article 4 obligations in Italy. - The firm focused on systems used in recruitment, workforce management and employee monitoring. - Eleonora Marzani, founder of Studio Marzani & Partners, said many businesses look first at privacy and IT compliance, but workplace AI can also raise labor-law and union-relations issues.

The details: - Article 4 of the Workers’ Statute allows tools that can also enable remote control of workers only for organizational needs, production needs, safety or asset protection. - Those tools generally require a collective agreement with RSU or RSA, or, if no agreement is reached, authorization from the National Labor Inspectorate. - The Article 4 exception does not apply to tools used by workers to perform their job or to systems used to record access and attendance, but that exception must be assessed case by case based on the actual functions of the tool. - Information gathered through these systems can be used for employment-related purposes only after adequate notice on how the tool is used and monitored, and in compliance with data-protection rules. - AI systems that track performance, behavior or productivity may therefore require an Article 4 review. - Italy’s Ministry of Labor linked Article 4 to AI tools that monitor worker behavior, productivity or movement in guidance adopted by Ministerial Decree No. 180 of Dec. 17, 2025. - Under Article 50 of EU Regulation 2024/1689, transparency obligations applied from Aug. 2, 2026, subject to transitional rules. - After changes introduced by Regulation 2026/1744, Sections 1, 2 and 3 of Chapter III, except Article 6(5), will apply from Dec. 2, 2027 to high-risk systems under Article 6(2) and Annex III, including some systems used for hiring and staff management. - For AI systems meant to interact directly with natural persons, the Article 50 transparency duty falls on the provider, while deployers have separate obligations. - For high-risk systems used in the workplace, Article 26(7) requires the employer-deployer to inform worker representatives and affected workers before putting the system into service or using it. - That workplace-information duty for Annex III high-risk systems will also start on Dec. 2, 2027. - Article 5 of the AI Act already bans the use of AI systems to infer emotions in the workplace, except for medical or safety reasons, from Feb. 2, 2025. - Studio Marzani & Partners said employers should distinguish systems used on candidates from those used on workers, then check whether Article 4 applies and whether an agreement, authorization, labor notice or privacy notice is needed. - Article 11 of Law 132/2025 also remains relevant because it refers worker-information rules to Article 1-bis of Legislative Decree 152/1997, which covers fully automated decision-making or monitoring systems and expressly preserves Article 4 of the Workers’ Statute. - The firm said companies seeking an initial assessment can contact Studio Marzani & Partners for a review of their obligations. - Marzani said workplace AI can trigger a dual compliance path that requires labor-law and union-relations expertise, not only technology skills.

Between the lines: - The practical challenge is not just whether an AI system is lawful under the AI Act, but whether its functions also place it inside long-standing Italian labor rules on remote monitoring. - That means the same HR tool can create parallel obligations under EU tech regulation, labor law and data protection law. - The overlap will likely be most important for recruitment platforms, productivity tools and employee-monitoring software.

What's next: - Employers using AI in HR will need to map each system to the people it affects, the data it collects and the degree of monitoring it enables. - Companies using high-risk workplace systems should prepare for the Dec. 2, 2027 application date for the relevant AI Act rules. - Italian employers should also confirm whether worker-representative agreements, inspector authorization or updated employee notices are required before deployment.

The bottom line: - In Italy, workplace AI is no longer just a tech and privacy issue. For some systems, it is also a labor-law compliance problem that can require union or inspector involvement.