Demand for immigrant workers increases

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The number of non-EU immigrant workers continues to increase in Italy, with this group accounting for nearly a quarter of all recruitment in 1999 and 2000. This has enabled Italian firms, particularly those located in the North, to meet their personnel requirements, especially for lower-skilled jobs. Collective bargaining is beginning to concern itself with the issue of immigration: for example, an agreement on the provision of training for immigrant workers was signed in October 2000 in the Veneto region.

Italy has traditionally been a country of emigration, especially up until the 1950s and 1960s. However, since the end of the 1980s and notably during the 1990s, a change has taken place in the direction of migratory flows and Italy is now a country of immigration. In 2000, the number of foreign nationals with regular residence permits stands at around 1,200,000, equal to 2.2% of the population, a proportion lower than in most other European countries. However, the figure is underestimated, given the amount of illegal immigration that takes place.

This increase in immigration has prompted the government to take action, the aim being to combat clandestine immigration and to grant more rights to non-EU foreign nationals with legitimate residency documents. Law no. 40/1998 introduced new rules on immigration in order to control flows into the country. To this end, the government annually fixes the maximum number of people allowed to enter the country from outside the EU, taking account mainly of the needs of the labour market and of applications by resident immigrants to be joined by their families.

The regulation of immigrant flows continues to be a somewhat complex undertaking. One the one hand, applying the law has proved difficult - for example, the question of regularising the positions of non-EU foreigners already present in the country when the law was enacted, for whom an amnesty was envisaged, has been problematic. On the other hand, there is a continuing problem of clandestine immigration.

Immigrant workers and the labour market

A survey by the Institute for the Development of Vocational Training (Istituto per lo Sviluppo della Formazione dei Lavoratori, Isfol) and the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Artisans and Agriculture (Unioncamere), presented on 6 November 2000, provides a picture of the presence of non-EU foreign nationals in the Italian labour market.

In 1999 and 2000 to date, some 200,589 immigrant workers were given employment on the basis of legitimate employment contracts, equivalent to 24.5% of total recruitment. There were particularly high levels of recruitment of immigrants in North-East Italy (34.8% of all immigrant recruitment), where there is an especially large presence of small firms, followed by the Centre (22.2%), the North-West (20.8%) and the South (19%).

The survey also shows that immigrant workers are mainly employed in low-skilled jobs. In fact, 51.2% of the unskilled personnel taken on by firms in 1999-2000 consisted of immigrants. There is a large proportion of immigrants among blue-collar workers (30.9% of unskilled workers recruited and 29.5% of skilled workers) and in services to households (30.9% of total recruitment). By contrast, only 4.5% of vacancies in "intellectual" occupations are filled by immigrants. The sectors with the largest proportions of immigrant workers are construction, metalworking and tourism (where the majority are seasonal workers).

These figures confirm that, despite the high unemployment rate in Italy, without foreign personnel firms would find it extremely difficult to maintain their staffing levels. This is particularly so in areas such as the North-East.

The importance to firms of immigrant labour has been confirmed by a request made in June 2000 by the Confindustria employers' confederation that the Italian government increase the quota of foreign workers fixed for 2000. In February 2000, the government established that a maximum of 63,000 non-EU foreigners could enter Italy for the purposes of work in 2000, to which was subsequently added a further 20,000 entry permits for seasonal workers. According to Confindustria, the additional quota for seasonal workers is important because it meets the personnel needs of sectors like agriculture and tourism, where seasonal work is particularly widespread. However, in order to meet the labour shortfalls of many firms, especially in the North and Centre of Italy, it would be advisable to increase the quota of immigrant workers on open-ended contracts.

Immigration and collective bargaining

As mentioned, the North-East is the area of Italy with the largest proportion of immigrant workers. In Veneto, one of the north-eastern regions with the highest levels of immigrant employment, the Industrial Association of Veneto (Associazione Industriali del Veneto, the regional branch of Confindustria) and the regional organisations of the Cgil, Cisl and Uil trade union confederations signed an agreement on 10 October 2000, designed to foster the integration and entry into employment of immigrant workers. The agreement places particular importance on action in the cultural field (in particular learning Italian) and on training in order to increase the skills of immigrant workers. The agreement states that attendance by foreign workers on training and language courses will be encouraged by existing collectively agreed instruments, such as individual leave and the so-called "150-hours scheme", whereby workers may take 150 hours of paid leave from work in order to study (especially in the past, when educational levels were lower, many workers used these hours to study for secondary-school certificates). Moreover, some courses should be organised outside working hours.

The Verneto social partners, working through a regional joint training committee, have undertaken to organise training schemes and design training courses targeted at immigrants (also unemployed immigrants enrolled at job placement centres) which will also involve other training organisations and local government bodies.

Commentary

The figures on the recruitment of immigrant workers confirm the existence of segmentation in the Italian labour market. In fact, despite high unemployment, there is a mismatch between labour demand and supply, especially in the case of low-skilled jobs, with an excess of the former. Moreover, immigrant workers do not compete with Italian workers but are complementary to them, in that they tend to do work of no interest to Italians. Significant in this regard are the difficulties faced by firms in the North of Italy in meeting their labour needs. In the past they could rely on immigration from the South, but this has declined greatly over the years.

The presence of non-EU foreign workers in the labour market raises new challenges for trade unions, employers' associations and other industrial relations actors. A system is urgently needed to protect workers who are in a vulnerable position in the labour market and who, as testified by the spread of irregular work, are in many cases deprived of any protection whatsoever. Moreover, the employment and social integration of immigrants requires measures in areas such as training, education and social policy. The agreement signed in Veneto is a significant development because it is one of the first entirely to concern itself with immigration. It also seeks to encourage the social integration of immigrant workers by combating the attitudes of suspicion and fear that, especially in those areas with the highest levels of immigration, are increasingly common in some sectors of public opinion.

As regards industrial relations, the agreement in Veneto confirms the increasing importance of territorial-level bargaining, as an intermediate level between national and company bargaining which deals with issues of relevance to local development and regulates matters specific to the geographical area concerned. (Marco Trentini, Ires Lombardia)