In May 2009, the Italian Minister of Labour, Health and Social Policy presented a White Paper, outlining the welfare initiatives that the current government intend to introduce when the economic crisis is resolved. The paper highlighted current shortcomings and underlined the fundamental values on which the reforms must be based. Its contents generated a mixed response from the trade unions.
On 6 May 2009, the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Policy, Maurizio Sacconi, presented a White Paper setting out the guidelines that the government will be following in order to initiate a gradual reform of the country’s welfare system. The document was compiled by a working group and was based on the consultation of ‘over three thousand subjects, including institutions, representative organisations and individual citizens’. The process started in July 2008 with the issuing of a government Green Paper (IT0808019I).
According to Minister Sacconi, the White Paper is not a plan of action, but rather a document describing the values and future scenarios that will help the government to identify necessary interventions once the economic crisis has been overcome.
Shortcomings highlighted
The scenario outlined in the government White Paper illustrates a country characterised by considerable territorial differences: more specifically, the north of the country is well developed and connected with the rest of Europe, while ‘systematic inefficiencies’ are evident in the south.
In terms of state expenditure, there is more spending on pensions than on the health service. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Italian health service is one of the best in the world (see 2000 WHO report (1.64Mb), Table 10, p. 200). Notwithstanding this finding, however, it appears to be particularly inefficient, especially in the south.
According to Minister Sacconi, active labour market policies are also lacking and industrial relations remain excessively rigid, with too much of a tendency towards national bargaining.
Fundamental values
According to the minister, the welfare reforms must be based on certain fundamental values, namely:
- the individual and the family, as recognised by the Constitution, based on marriage;
- the community as ‘a network of people, families, small communities, associations, profit and non-profit organisations, voluntary associations and cooperatives’;
- the promotion of health;
- work and entrepreneurship;
- subsidiarity – the governance of the system will consider the central importance of the territory and federalism as opposed to interventions at national level.
Interventions needed
The interventions regarding the welfare reforms will have to be realised taking into consideration the country more at territorial rather than national level (federalism). They will also take into account existing good practices, while at the same time intervene to reduce waste and inefficiency. Support for families, through tax relief, will be based on fiscal federalism.
Health system
The health and welfare system will also have to be sustained by private interventions at economic and managerial level. Alongside the public health system, the minister states that ‘there is a need for the development of a new system with forms of integrated health and social assistance, retaking into consideration the use of mutual aid societies’.
The ‘governance’ of the public health structures will have to be managed more autonomously, with local bodies adopting ‘a “third” role in which they will act as a neutral control of the quality of services offered’.
Employment regulation
The employment regulations must be rewritten, linking them to an autonomous and more efficient system of industrial relations. The system will have to take greater consideration of regional characteristics than in the past. This will involve adapting to more local realities through an increased use of company-level bargaining; the latter will help to guarantee ‘a more dynamic system of remuneration and a more efficient distribution of wealth’.
Interventions as a temporary measure only
The social shock absorbers and interventions implemented must not merely be in relation to welfare. According to the Minister Sacconi, ‘excessively generous interventions trap the people in need in a condition of social exclusion’. Therefore, the interventions will always have to be of a temporary nature and, regarding unemployment, must cease in cases where subjects ‘refuse an offer of employment which is in line with their previous occupation and remuneration’. Moreover, the new system of income support will have to actively involve the social partners through the use of bilateral organisms.
Focus on future
All of the interventions, including the reform of the pension system, will be discussed and come into force at a future stage, when the country has entered into a more economically stable period compared with the current situation.
Reaction of trade unions
While the General Confederation of Italian Labour (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil) views the White Paper as an ambitious project, it has expressed reservations regarding its contents. In particular, Cgil disapproves of the method adopted by the minister to consult the social partners. The consultation lasted only three months and was allegedly based on ‘single statements and no debate’ – a mechanism that is ‘very different from the concept of social dialogue which has been mentioned many times’.
The Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil) has also stated that the objectives outlined in the White Paper are ambitious and has requested that the social partners are actively involved in its implementation. For its part, the General Union of Workers (Unione Generale del Lavoro, Ugl) has confirmed its willingness to negotiate on the White Paper.
The Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl), on the other hand, has expressed a ‘positive evaluation on the White Paper as a whole’. Nonetheless, it argues that ‘the complexity of the matters requires a deeper analysis of every single chapter’, adding that the minister should meet and discuss these issues with the social partners.
Commentary
The White Paper constitutes an important point of reference or starting point for the modernisation and sustainability of Italy’s welfare system. In particular, it underlines how resources must be transferred from the pension system to measures acting as social shock absorbers, in order to favour new generations with fragmented professional careers and to guarantee them sustainable future pensions.
This process will take place through a revision of the pension system. The trade unions have expressed reservations regarding this matter. However, it seems to be essential in order to guarantee that it is not only young people and women who pay the price for the impending structural changes.
Vilma Rinolfi and Domenico Paparella, Cesos
Notice
This is, unfortunately, the last information update to be co-written by Domenico Paparella. Mr Paparella passed away on 9 July 2009 following a long and painful disease caused by asbestos, one of the many professional diseases that kill people all over the world.
He will be sadly missed by all of his colleagues at Cesos.