Susanna Camusso, the leader of
Italy's biggest trade union confederation CGIL, on Friday
blasted the agreement Premier Matteo Renzi's executive reached
with dissidents within his own centre-left Democratic Party (PD)
over his Jobs Act labour reform bill.
She also vowed that "the game is absolutely not over".
The GCIL is set to stage a national general strike against
the Jobs Act, which features changes to the law on unfair
dismissal, and the government's 2015 budget bill, on December 5.
Tension eased within the PD on Thursday when the executive
agreed to amend the changes in the Jobs Act to Article 18 of the
1970 Workers Statutes guaranteeing people unjustly sacked the
right to their job back.
Initially the Jobs Act stipulated this this would change
for newly hired workers so that if a court finds they were
unjustly sacked, they would get compensation, rather than being
rehired.
It said judges must order a firm to rehire a worker only in
cases of discrimination. But the government has agreed to change
the bill on the basis of a petition approved at a tense PD
meeting in September, which states that people fired on the
basis of groundless disciplinary complaints should also have the
right to their jobs back.
Camusso, however, is not satisfied.
"It doesn't seem to us that the mediation (within the PD)
maintains the rights (of workers)," Camusso said.
She was echoed by Maurizio Landini, the leader of leftwing
Italian metalworkers union FIOM, who blasted the internal PD
agreement as a "mockery".
He also said the FIOM will keep protesting against the
bill.
"The mediation within the PD is a mockery that is only
useful for MPs to hang on to their jobs," said Landini, whose
organization is part of CGIL.
"We won't stop. We'll keep going all the way until they
change their position," he added at a protest rally in Milan.
"We have the strength and intelligence to do so".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
