Labour Minister Giuliano
Poletti on Monday said that a 320-euro "social inclusion income"
will become a permanent fixture across the country, following on
the heels of a 2015 initiative called "support of active
inclusion" (SIA) that was launched in 12 large Italian cities.
"We're providing for a universal intervention available to
all citizens in poverty to produce conditions allowing them to
live with dignity," he said.
Poletti said any individual receiving the income will be
tied to an agreement with the local community that takes on
their case, and the individual must agree to send their children
to school, accept jobs proposed to them, and also accept any
related professional training.
Funding for the income is in the government's 2016 budget
bill, and that funding will be combined with funding from last
year's SIA programme to provide the 320 euros a month, he said.
Regarding the so-called Jobs Act for the self-employed that
received Cabinet approval last week, Poletti said it would take
"a few months" to reach approval in Parliament.
Poletti also commented on what he called a "rather
suspicious boom" in freelance work vouchers that he said began
in 2012 when the Fornero pension reform laws opened vouchers for
use in all sectors.
He said his ministry is monitoring the situation together
with pension and social security agency INPS.
"We absolutely don't want vouchers to become a tool for
distortion in the labour market," Poletti said.
"We're working for stabilisation, not job insecurity".
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