'Drift' towards relegating labour rights worrisome - CEI (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, April 21 - The "drift" towards labour having ever fewer rights is worrisome, the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI) said Thursday. It said a lack of work in Italy "leads ever more people, scared by the prospect of losing it or not finding it, to share the idea that nothing is as it was before: dignity, rights, health end up in the second row," the CEI said in a message for Labour Day. "This is a worrisome drift caused by the persistence of a steadily severe economic crisis" and by widening unemployment, it said. CEI added that the south of Italy must be taken back from the mafia if the north is to be truly prosperous and said Italy cannot afford to lose the talent of its young people by letting them emigrate. It said "Italy has been stuck for too long, now's the time to support those who have lost or are losing their jobs". According to the CEI, the workplace must be an "expression of dignity, a humanising place".
    photo: CEI chief Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco