Gym and Sports Facility Collective Agreement in Italy: Who It Covers

Working at a gym or sports facility in Italy does not mean just one kind of contract. It depends on the role: someone at the front desk or in administration, without sports worker status, is an employee covered by the CCNL Impianti Sportivi e Palestre. A coach, a fitness trainer or a competition director tied to a federation, on the other hand, can fall under an entirely different regime, the sports collaboration contract set out in Legislative Decree 36/2021. Two separate legal worlds that sometimes share the same building.

The agreement and who it covers

The CCNL Impianti Sportivi e Palestre in force since 2024 was signed on January 12 of that year, in Rome, between the Confederazione italiana dello sport-Confcommercio on the employer side and the SLC-CGIL, FISASCAT-CISL and UILCOM-UIL unions on the workers’ side. The text itself is titled the “Testo Unico del Contratto Collettivo di Lavoro per i Lavoratori Sportivi” (consolidated collective agreement for sports workers): the older name, gyms and sports facilities, is still how the agreement is known and searched for. It is filed with CNEL under code H077 and runs for three years, from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2026.

It covers employees of gyms, fitness clubs, swimming pools and sports facilities.

It applies to both for-profit and nonprofit operators, whenever they manage athletes or run sports, fitness and wellness activities. It does not cover self-employed collaborators, nor anyone holding sports worker status.

Many of these organizations are nonprofit associations, a form close to Italy’s third sector. They still fall under the CCNL Impianti Sportivi e Palestre, not under a nonprofit-specific agreement.

The distinction from sports worker status

Legislative Decree No. 36 of February 28, 2021, reformed sports employment in Italy, with Title V taking effect on July 1, 2023. The reform created the “sports worker” status: athlete, coach, instructor, technical or sports director, fitness trainer, competition director. Anyone holding this status, when tied to an organization in the recognized sports system - a federation, a sports promotion body, CONI, CIP, Sport e salute - can work as an employee, as self-employed, or under a coordinated and continuous collaboration. There is no single “sports collaborator” regime, then: the collaboration form is only one of three possible arrangements, and under Legislative Decree 36/2021 it is the most common one in amateur sports.

Practical example: at the same gym, a receptionist is hired under the CCNL Impianti Sportivi e Palestre while a swimming instructor is classified as a sports worker under a coordinated collaboration, as set out in Legislative Decree 36/2021: same workplace, two contracts with different rules, because the law looks at the role performed, not the sector where it happens.

This is where most of the confusion starts. The 2021 reform did not pull every worker in the sports sector under one umbrella: it defined a specific status, tied to technical sports functions recognized by an organization affiliated with the sports system. General staff at a gym - the front desk, cleaning, administration - do not fall under that status. They stay under ordinary labor law, meaning under the CCNL Impianti Sportivi e Palestre, regardless of the sports reform.

The difference goes beyond the contract’s name. Whoever classifies staff at a sports facility first has to decide whether a given role falls under sports worker status or not: that choice determines whether the CCNL Impianti Sportivi e Palestre applies, with its rules on an employment contract, or one of the three arrangements under Legislative Decree 36/2021. A sports instructor can also choose, or be classified, as self-employed: in that case they are more likely to use a VAT number than a project-based contract.

The 2024 renewal and amateur sports collaborators

According to Wbox.it, the January 12, 2024, renewal also folded the sports employment reform into the contract, setting out within the same CCNL how coordinated and continuous collaborators working in amateur sports are paid. The same source reports that these collaborators get pay floors 25% above employees classified at the same level.

The increase is not a bonus: it offsets the fact that a collaborator gets no overtime pay, no extra monthly installments, no paid vacation and no paid leave, benefits an employee is entitled to. The agreement tries to balance that gap through pay, while leaving the underlying protections of each regime as they are.

Gyms and sports facilities in Italy therefore run under two labor rules: the CCNL for anyone hired as an employee, and Legislative Decree 36/2021 for anyone holding sports worker status. The same pattern shows up elsewhere in the labor market, where employees and collaborators share a workplace under separate contracts.