Quota for women in part-time decree

(see related) (ANSA) - Rome, April 14 - A female "quota" will be able to benefit from a new decree making it easier for people close to retirement to go part time at the end of their careers to get round the problem of alleged gender inequality in the provision, Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti said Thursday.
    "In this experimental first launch a quota of women will be able to have the possibility of going part time three years from retirement," Poletti said in response to criticism that the new measure enacting a clause in the 2016 budget law excludes women.
    The question of female access "doesn't depend on the labour minister or on the (2016) stability law, but on pensions laws that have been drawn up in a particular way," he added. Italy's third largest trades union confederation UIL said Thursday the problem could be overcome by applying the 2006 equal opportunities code. "The government aims at self-sufficiency and it ends up with insufficiency," said UIL general secretary Carmelo Barbagallo.
    "With social dialogue it would have avoided this mistake," he added. Barbagallo also expressed the importance of discussion with social partners in completely re-thinking Italy's welfare system in view of its ageing population.