Workers demonstrate against Government's employment policy

Download article in original language : IT9806172NIT.DOC

In June 1998, 300,000 workers demonstrated in Rome against the Italian Government's perceived delay in tackling the unemployment problem in the South. The demonstration was organised by the main trade union organisations, and the mayors of the most important cities of Southern Italy also took part.

The relations between Italy's centre-left Government and the trade union movement are once again very tense in summer 1998. On 20 June, for the second time in two years (IT9703104N), the unions organised a national demonstration to protest against the Government's employment and development policy in the South of Italy (Mezzogiorno). The event, organised in Rome by the Cgil, Cisl and Uil union confederations, involved 300,000 workers and included the mayors of the main southern cities

Cgil, Cisl and Uil are highly unsatisfied and critical with regard to the results achieved by the Government on the issues of employment and development in the Mezzogiorno, believing that there is a gap between the Government's capacity to take immediate action and the reality of the current extremely difficult situation. The unions' attitude is also due to the fact that the Government has not yet fulfilled its commitments as set out in the October 1996 tripartite "Employment Pact" (IT9702201F).While the unions acknowledge that the recent confrontation between the Government and the employers has been partly to blame, they complain about the lack of coordination between the different Ministries and about delays at the level of local public administrations.

The unions state that three points in particular contained in the "Employment Pact" have not been respected:

1. infrastructural policy - public works and infrastructural networks;

2. labour market policies and financial aid for employment, training and research; and

3. operational and financial instruments for intervening in the Mezzogiorno - "territorial pacts", "area agreements" and an agency for the promotion and the development of southern regions.

As regards the first point, the unions point to the most critical aspects of the modernisation process for the Mezzogiorno: the completion and modernisation of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway; and the programme for waterworks, soil protection, energy networks (both electricity and methane), telecommunications and railway networks. The majority of these projects, it is claimed, are hindered by the inefficiencies of local public administrations, and the unions want these administrations to solve the problem through streamlining measures.

As regards the second point, the unions complain about a lack of certainty in terms of investment in human resources, and in particular about the lack of new experimental forms of apprenticeship and about the reorganisation of vocational training, of training bodies and of the integration process between school and training. The unions propose actions to prevent school drop-outs (the South, in particular, has a high drop-out rate), to foster technical training in higher education and to relaunch scientific research activities.

The unions have also denounced as totally inadequate the policies so far adopted by the Government against illegal and "underground" work, and point out that the legislation on the so-called contratti di emersione- contracts allowing for the negotiation of temporary exemptions from the application of collectively agreed wages (IT9706207F) - is on the point of expiry. The unions are thus seeking new regulations capable of contributing to the "regularisation" of underground work.

The unions also underline that so far no southern region has adapted its legislation in order to implement the policies of decentralisation of labour market management provided for by the "Employment Pact".

As regards the third point of disagreement between the Government and the unions, the latter have complained about the delay in implementing "area agreements" and "territorial pacts" - local agreements to promote employment and economic development (IT9704203F). The unions call on the Government to:

• make operative all the matters related to law enforcement mentioned in area agreements;

• increase financial resources, including the use of structural funds, to finance area agreements and territorial pacts; and

• define the role and the functions of the "agency" for the promotion of new activities in the Mezzogiorno, so that it can start its activity.

In a declaration, unions leaders stated that they are losing confidence in the Government and that, if the measures demanded are not implemented, they will probably call a general strike in autumn 1998.

According to many observers the June demonstration was not as successful as anticipated: the number of workers and young people attending the demonstration were less than the organisers expected. However, the presence of the mayors from the Mezzogiorno had a significant political importance: their presence alongside the unions at the bargaining table with the Government and employers will provide some important political "clout" in relation to the Government.

Antonio Bassolino, the mayor of Naples has proposed setting up, within the government, a group responsible for monitoring all matters related to the development of the South, while Mr Bianco, the mayor of Catania, has stressed the problems caused by public safety concerns and the need to establish a public structure able to support the development of local communities.

Antonio D'Amato, a spokesperson for the employers, described the demonstration as useless and blamed the unions for resisting flexible wages and working hours in the South. Such flexibility, together with the reduction of social security contributions for enterprises willing to invest in the South, is seen by employers as one of the possible solutions to the region's unemployment problem.