Labour Minister Giuliano
Poletti tried to calm angry trade unions Wednesday by saying
that no decision has been made as yet on scaling back job
protections contained in existing Italian law.
"When the time comes, we will discuss this," he told the
Lower House after unions threatened strikes if job protections
contained in Article 18 of the 1970s Worker's Statute are
eliminated in the new Jobs Act.
Premier Matteo Renzi was widely reported to have threatened
to scale back Article 18 by decree to override parliamentary
objections, although Cabinet Secretary Graziano Delrio denied
this on a Tuesday night talk show.
Businesses have long argued that the article is a major
stumbling block for creating permanent jobs because they say it
makes it impossible to lay off employees once they have been
hired.
Such arguments have gained considerable attention in recent
years given the long-running weakness in the Italian economy,
now in its third recession since 2008.
But unions say that Article 18 is sacred and they will
fight to protect provisions that say companies with over 15
employees that fire someone without just cause must give them
their job back.
Abrogating Article 18 of the Worker's Statute to lower job
protection is "a scalp to take to the EU's free-market hawks,"
said Susanna Camusso, leader of Italy's largest union federation
CGIL.
A rapporteur added fuel to the fire Wednesday when he said
that under a new provision, the Jobs Act would require
compensation - but not the rehiring - of workers judged by a
court to have been unjustly fired from companies with more than
15 employees.
"There is a revision of the protection (for workers) with
open-ended contracts," said Maurizio Sacconi, the rapporteur of
an enabling law linked to the government's Jobs Act.
Many past Italian governments have tried to amend Article
18 but unions have always managed to fend off these attempts.
Meanwhile, Renzi's government presented two other
amendments to its Jobs Act which the government said are aimed
at increasing worker protection.
One stipulated that the eventual introduction of "a minimum
hourly payment" for Italian workers would also apply to
freelancers who regularly work for a company under a so-called
Co.Co.Co contract.
The amendment added that this would apply even if the
minimum wage were introduced "on an experimental basis".
Another amendment was designed to reward seniority by
providing for increased job protections as an employee's tenure
increases.
That amendment called for "open-ended contracts" rather
than the temporary or freelance contracts that are very popular
now with employers.
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