Can EU and Italy Employment Figures be Trusted?
The answer to the ‘Can EU and Italy Employment Figures be Trusted?’ question posed by the title of this post is ‘No, they cannot be’. Why? I’ll explain. I came across Italy’s definition of ’employed’ by chance while scanning the comments on an article about, well, employment figures. Here’s Italy’s official statistics agency ISTAT’s definition: […]
Is Italy’s Jobs Act A Waste of Time?
Italy’s Matteo Renzi led government is attempting to make the nation’s employment market work. Enter the Jobs Act which, it is hoped, will get Italians back to work. Well, that’s the intention. Italian governments before Mr Renzi’s have attempted to drag Italy’s stodgy employment market a little closer to the 21st century in the hope of creating jobs. […]
What You Need to Know about Italy’s Jobs Act
The Senate in Rome is debating Premier Renzi’s Jobs Act. There is some doubt about whether the reform will pass in its present form or if some modification will be made. The Jobs Act is a central platform of Renzi’s Italy reform program that also includes, judicial, electoral, bureaucratic and constitutional reforms. There is universal agreement […]
Bad and Good Employers in Italy
Are Italian companies bad employers, or are Italians bad bosses? The answer seems to be yes, and no. Some people do seem to think so. Italy Chronicles reader Terry who works down in Rome was not at all complimentary about Italian employers. Terry, with great respect, is but one person, but I cannot entirely disagree […]
Italians in Limbo, or Hell
A word is cropping up in Italy’s news with remarkable regularity at the moment. That Italian word is “esodati“. The word esodati, which has no direct translation, is being used to refer to the number of Italians who retired during a kind of twilight period created by pension system reforms. As a consequence of the […]
Italy’s Article 18 Woes
Italy is in turmoil at the moment. At the root of much consternation are reforms to Italy’s labor legislation and in particular something known as Article 18. Article 18 is part of Italy’s “workers’ statute”, the body of Italian law which governs employee rights. This article states that Italian employers must reinstate unfairly dismissed workers. Italy’s […]