Susanna Camusso, the leader of
Italy's largest trade union federation CGIL, said Monday that
Premier Matteo Renzi was wrong to delay changes to Italy's
pension system.
On Sunday Renzi announced that measures to add flexibility
to the pension system to enable people close to retirement age
to quit work would be passed next year and not in the 2016
budget law.
"It's wrong to delay the decision and consider it an
adjustment, offloading the burden onto the workers," said
Camusso.
Renzi told State broadcaster RAI on Sunday that it was
necessary to wait on the pension moves until 2016 "when the
numbers will be clearer".
He said otherwise there was a risk that any action could
actually cause "damage".
The government had said that it would address the unwanted
aftereffects of a 2011 pension reform, which raised the
retirement age and increased the years of contributions needed
to take early retirement, in its 2016 budget law.
The 2011 law, among other things, created the problem of
the 'esodati' (exiled ones) - people who were left without pay
or a pension after leaving jobs, as under the old rules, they
were eligible to retire.
There have been six interventions on behalf of the 250,000
or more esodati but an estimated 50,000 have still not been
helped.
On Sunday Renzi also said that the famous 80-euro-a-month
tax bonus he introduced last year for low earners will no longer
feature in people's pay packets, but will instead be transformed
into an extra form of tax deduction.
He added that the 2016 budget law will feature a move to
try to reverse the brain drain by bringing 500 Italian
university professors currently working abroad back home.
The premier confirmed that the IMU property tax and the
TASI local-services tax will be scrapped for household's primary
homes in the budget law and that the IRES business tax will be
cut.
"We are the first government to really cut taxes," renzi
said.
The budget will also feature measures to help some one
million Italian children living in poverty.
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