Monti tells young Italians to forget 'steady job for life'
Govt resumes talks on labour-market reform
Friday, 3 February 2012
02 February, 10:55
(ANSA) - Rome, February 2 - Premier Mario Monti has told young Italians to forget about having a steady job for life, adding this is ''monotonous'' anyway, with the government set to resume talks with unions on labour-market reform on Thursday. After passing an austerity package to put Italy's public finances in order in December and presenting a package of liberalisations aimed at reviving a sluggish economy this month, Monti's emergency administration now wants to pass measures to make it easier for women and young people to find work.
Youth unemployment is a huge problem in Italy, with national statistics agency ISTAT saying this week that 31% of people aged between 15 and 24 were out of work.
Former European commissioner Monti says no hypothesis should be off the table, including changes to the law that forbids companies with over 15 employees firing people without just cause - Article 18 of the 1970 Workers Statue.
"Article 18 can be pernicious for Italy's growth," Monti told Mediaset television late on Wednesday. "It's not a taboo.
"But young people must get used to the idea that they can't have a steady job for life any more. Besides, how monotonous that is. It's nice to change and take on challenges".
Monti said Article 18 had contributed to the creation of an "labour-market apartheid" in which older workers often have a high level of protection, while unemployment rates are extremely high among young Italians and those in work often have contracts that give them few rights and little job security.
The logic of Monti, who stepped in to lead an government of technocrats after the financial crisis forced Silvio Berlusconi to resign as premier in November, is that Article 18 makes firms reluctant to offer new workers proper steady contracts as it is hard to get rid of them once they are hired.
To compensate for greater flexibility over dismissals, the government wants to bring in new benefits to provide more support for people who have no job and it has talked about introducing a "minimum salary".
At the moment people without jobs who have never worked have no right to income-support benefits in Italy and neither do people whose salaries are very low.
While welcoming plans to change the benefits system, the unions are opposed to changing Article 18.
They argue the government should be working on a big job-creation plan rather than making it easier to firms to put more people on the dole.
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