Bersani promises Art. 18 battle-update 2

(ANSA) - Rome, September 19 - Ex Democratic Party (PD) chief Pier Luigi Bersani said Friday that party dissidents will file a slew of amendments to Premier Matteo Renzi's signature Jobs Act.
    "We will present many amendments, and not just on the right to reinstatement in case of unfair dismissal," Bersani said. "Because as things stand, we are merely adding more job insecurity to existing insecurity".
    The Jobs Act approved at committee stage progressively raises safeguards for new hires, slashes the plethora of temp contracts currently plaguing entry workers, and establishes a minimum wage and universal unemployment benefit.
    But it also calls for a a scaling back of Article 18 of the 1970 Workers' Statute - which says unfairly dismissed workers must be reinstated - and the prospect of easier firings for new hires has raised union hackles as well as aroused dissent within the PD.
    Italy's young premier is trying to achieve something akin to the German model of labor law, but this way he is only moving further away from it, Bersani argued.
    "Renzi is at risk of crushing workers' rights. We need reform, not a sterile tug-of-war," said the former premier-designate who failed to form a government after Italy's inconclusive 2013 general election.
    "New hires must enjoy the same protections as their more senior colleagues, including the right to reinstatement after unfair dismissal that exists throughout Europe," Bersani said.
    "We must strike a balance between capital and labor - that is the essence of being reformist," he concluded.