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Italy - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Rome

 

CLIMATE

Predominantly Mediterranean. Alpine in the far north while it is hot and dry in the south.

 

LANGUAGES

Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region) and Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area).

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Based on the civil law system. Appeals are treated as new trials. Judicial review, under certain conditions, are dealt with in Constitutional Courts. Italy has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.

 

CURRENCY

Euros (1 USD = 1.15668 EUR as of March 1, 2002)

 

ITALY - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

ITALY - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U. S. Embassy at Rome

Via Vittorio Veneto 119/A

00187, Roma, Italy

PSC 59, Box 100

APO AE 09624

Rome, Italy

Telephone: [39] (060) 46741

Fax: [39] (060) 4882-672

http://www.usembassy.it

 

Consular Offices:

Florence

Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci 38

50123 Firenze, Italy

Telephone: [39] (055) 239-8276

Fax: [39] (055) 284-088

 

U.S. Consulate General

Milan

Via Principe Amedeo 2/10

20121 Milano, Italy

Telephone: [39] (022) 290-351

Fax: [39] (020) 2900-1165

 

American Consulate General

Naples

Piazza della Repubblica

80122 Napoli, Italy

Telephone: [39] (081) 5838-111

Fax: [39] (080) 7611-869

 

Embassy of Italy in the United States

3000 Whitehaven Street, NW

Washington D.C. 20008

Telephone: (202) 612-4400

Fax: (202) 518-2154

 

ITALY - HOLIDAYS

 

ITALY - LEAVE

For personal reasons: 4 days for marriage. 3 days for birth or adoption of a child. 2 days for the death of a spouse or child. 1 day for the marriage of a child. 1 day for the death of a parent.

 

Maternity Leave: 5 months leave at 80% of pay (paid for by Social Security).

 

For social or civic reasons: Unpaid leave of not more than 10 days for judicial activities. Not more than 20 days for activities concerning immigrants, the unemployed in training, and humanitarian organizations. 9 days for workers appointed to an association or mutual benefit organization linked to public authority at the national, regional, or local level.

 

ITALY - MINIMUM AGE

The law forbids employment of children under 15 years of age (with some limited exceptions). There are also specific restrictions on employment in hazardous or unhealthful occupations for males under age 18, and females under age 21. The enforcement of minimum age laws is effective only outside the extensive "underground" economy. Estimates of the number of child laborers differ, ranging from 30,000 to 300,000 children (the most probable figure may be in the area of 50,000). The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor by children; however trafficking of children into the country has been a problem.

 

ITALY - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

Minimum wages are not set by law but rather by collective bargaining agreements. These specify minimum standards to which individual employment contracts must conform. When an employer and a union fail to reach agreement, courts may step in to determine fair wages on the basis of practice in comparable activities or agreements.

 

ITALY - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

ITALY - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a.      The Right of Association

 

The law provides for the right to establish trade unions, join unions, and carry out union activities in the workplace, and workers exercise this right. The unions state that they represent between 35 and 40 percent of the work force. Trade unions are free of government controls and have no formal ties with political parties. All trade unions are professional trade union organizations that defend trade union interests. Individual trade unionists are free to identify with and support political parties of their choosing.

 

The Constitution provides for the right to strike, and this right is exercised frequently. In April 2000, following a period of multiple land, sea, and air transport sector strikes, Parliament passed a law amending provisions of a 1990 measure that restricted strikes affecting essential public services (e.g., transport, sanitation, and health). The new law defined minimum service to be maintained during a strike as 50 percent of normal service, with staffing by at least one-third the normal work force. The law established compulsory cooling off periods and more severe sanctions for violations. The law covers transport worker unions, lawyers, and self-employed taxi drivers. In May 2000, a Transport Ministry regulation required all national labor contracts involving employment sectors covered by the law to adjust contract provisions to the new rules. These changes were supported by the three major national trade union confederations, which sought to avoid inconvenience to tourists and the traveling public during the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year. The law has been effective in preventing complete work stoppages in essential public service sectors on the frequent occasions during the year on which such strikes have occurred. However, there were numerous, repeated strikes, in many sectors throughout the year.

 

Unions associate freely with national and international trade union organizations. The Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL) is the largest national trade union confederation; there are three other confederations, the Confederazione Italiana Sindacati dei Lavoratori (CISL), the Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL), and the Unione Generale del Lavoro (UGL). CGIL, CISL, and UIL are affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; UGL is affiliated with the World Confederation of Labor.

 

b.      The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

The Constitution provides for the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively, and workers exercise this right. By custom, although not by law, national collective bargaining agreements apply to all workers, regardless of union affiliation.

 

The law prohibits discrimination by employers against union members and organizers. Dismissals of workers must be justified in writing. If a judge deems the grounds spurious, he can order the employer to reinstate or compensate the worker; in firms employing more than 15 workers, workers have the option to choose between reinstatement and compensation, whereas in firms with fewer than 15 workers, the employer makes the choice.

 

c.      Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor; however, trafficking in women was a problem (see Section 6.f.).

 

The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor by children; however, trafficking in children was a problem (see Section 6.f.).

 

d.      Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

The law forbids the employment of children under age 15 (with some limited exceptions), and there are specific restrictions on employment in hazardous or unhealthful occupations for men under age 18, and women under age 21; however, these laws were not respected fully in practice. The enforcement of minimum age or other child protection laws is difficult in the extensive underground economy. Estimates of the number of child laborers differ, ranging from 30,000 to 350,000 children. Most of these cases involve immigrants, but instances involving Italian children also have been reported. Illegal immigrant child laborers from Northern Africa, the Philippines, Albania, and particularly China continued to enter the country in large numbers, and the influx from China continued to rise. According to the Carabinieri, an estimated 30,000 illegal Chinese work in sweatshop conditions near Florence, with many minor children working alongside the rest of their families to produce scarves, purses, and imitations of various brand name products. Many of these factories, which face threats of infiltration or coercion by Chinese organized crime, are equipped with escape tunnels to thwart labor inspections. Carabinieri officers who work on child labor developed a videocassette program to educate schoolchildren on child labor laws, their rights as specially protected workers, and workplace hazards. Labor Ministry inspections in 2000 of 1,776 firms revealed that the employment of approximately one out of three minors entailed some irregularity of age, occupation, prescribed medical evaluation, or required rest or vacation period.

 

The Government, employers associations, and unions continued their tripartite cooperation on child labor. Their periodic consultations, begun in 1997, cover such matters as better enforcement of school attendance regulations and programs to reduce the number of school dropouts (see Section 5); faster assistance for families in financial difficulty; and canceling economic or administrative incentives for companies found to make use of child labor, whether domestically or abroad. The Prime Minister's office provides a toll-free telephone number to report incidents of child labor. The footwear and textile industries and the goldsmith associations have codes of conduct that prohibit the use of child labor in their national and international activities; codes are applicable to subcontractors as well. In 1999 a child labor clause was attached to the national labor contract in the health sector, whereby the parties committed themselves not to use surgical tools produced by child labor.

 

The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor by children; however, trafficking of children into the country was a problem (see Section 6.f.).

 

e.      Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

Minimum wages are not set by law, but by collective bargaining agreements on a sector by sector basis, which specify minimum standards to which individual employment contracts must conform. When an employer and a union fail to reach an agreement, courts may step in to determine fair wages on the basis of practice in comparable activities, although this rarely happens in practice. These wages provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family.

 

The legal workweek is 40 hours; most collective agreements provide for a 36- to 38-hour workweek. The average contractual workweek is 39 hours but is actually less in many industries. Overtime work may not exceed 2 hours per day or an average of 12 hours per week. Unless otherwise limited by a collective bargaining agreement, the law sets maximum permissible overtime hours in industrial sector firms at no more than 80 hours per quarter and 250 hours annually.

 

The law sets basic health and safety standards and guidelines for compensation for on-the-job injuries. For most practical purposes, EU directives on health and safety also have been incorporated into the law. Labor inspectors are from the public health service or from the Ministry of Labor, but they are few in number in view of the scope of their responsibilities. Courts impose fines and sometimes prison terms for violation of health and safety laws. In 2000 the Workmen's Compensation Institute reported an increase of accidents by 0.4 percent over the 1999 figures; however, there was a 3.8 percent decrease in the number of accidents resulting in death. Accidents occur with the greatest frequency in the underground economy, which employs between 3.5 and 5 million workers. Workers have the right to remove themselves from dangerous work situations without jeopardizing their continued employment.

 

f.      Trafficking in Persons

 

The law does not specifically address trafficking in persons, although trafficking may be prosecuted under other laws and articles of the Penal Code; trafficking in persons for prostitution and forced labor is a growing problem. Some government visa operations are under investigation for visa fraud in connection with trafficking.

 

Italy is primarily a destination country for trafficked persons, primarily women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation, but also some men and boys trafficked for forced labor. Persons are trafficked primarily from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, particularly from Albania, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslav republics, Ukraine, and Moldova; Nigeria; South America, particularly Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia; and to a lesser extent Asia, particularly China. There were unconfirmed reports that an estimated 3,500 trafficked women were in Italy and that approximately 2000 persons are trafficked each year. Italy also is a transit point for traffickers, who arrive primarily by boat or airplane, with ultimate destinations in other Western or Northern European countries.

 

ITALY - STANDARD WORKWEEK

A 1997 law reduced the legal workweek to 40 hours from 48. Most collective agreements provide for a 36- to 38-hour workweek. Overtime may not exceed 2 hours a day or an average of 12 hours per week.

 

ITALY - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs:

 

http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html

 

ITALY - TOTALIZATION AGREEMENT WITH U.S.

Effective Date of Agreement: November 1, 1978.

 

Coverage and Social Security Taxes: 

 

For Italian nationals working in the U.S. for a U.S. employer, coverage and taxes fall to the U.S. Italian nationals working in the U.S. for an Italian employer, and dual nationals (nationals of both the U.S. and Italy) working in Italy, may elect either U.S. or Italian coverage (election must be made within three months of date work begins, and may be changed only under special conditions).

 

Certificate of Coverage Request: 

 

To establish an employee's exemption from coverage under the U.S. Social Security system, the employer in Italy must request a certificate of coverage from Italy by writing to the provincial office of the Instituto Nazionale de Previdenza Sociale in the province where the employer's headquarters is located. The same information required for a certificate of coverage from the U.S. is needed to get a certificate from Italy, except that the Italian Social Security number should be shown rather than the U.S. number. 

 

Minimum Credits Needed:

 

An employee without enough work credits to qualify for Italian benefits may combine Social Security credits from the U.S. and Italy to meet eligibility requirements provided the employee has a total of at least one year of coverage since 1920 under the Italian Social Security system.

 

Summary of Social Security Benefits: 

 

Retirement or old age benefits are paid at any age with 35 years of coverage, or at ages 55-65, depending on coverage and type of work. Disability benefits are paid under pensionable age if the worker is totally and permanently unable to perform any work activity. Survivor benefits and family benefits are paid to a worker's wife at any age if disabled and dependent on worker; husband at any age if dependent on worker and disabled; and, children up to 18 or any age if disabled and dependent on worker. (In Italy, family members must be dependent on the worker and are presumed to be if they are living in the same household.) There is no death benefit provision.

 

Additional Information:

 

For specific information on Italy's Social Security program, visit any Social Security office in Italy, or write to:

 

I.N.P.S.--Direzione Generale

Servizio Rapporti e Convenzioni

Internazionali

Via della Frezza 17

00186 Roma

ITALY

 

See Totalization Agreements