Of Luigi Tedeschi

Source: Italicum

Very little is said about the Jobs Act: it is an obsolete or hidden topic? A virtual Renzian myth has turned into a tragic reality.

Dal 2015, year in which the labor reform called Jobs Act was passed, one and a half million workers were hired on permanent contracts with increasing protections. This legislation provided, for new hires in 2015 the contribution exemption of 100% for businesses. Companies that have benefited from contributory savings for 3 years of 8.000 euros per year. In the 2018 the period foreseen for the total contribution relief expires and therefore, under ordinary regime, the cost of labor for those hired under the Jobs Act will increase by 25 – 30%.

E’ was detected by an INPS report from July 2017, than in the last three years or so 700.000 workers have left companies due to resignation or dismissal. In fact, it should be noted that at the same time as the passing of the Jobs Act, the article was repealed 18 of the Workers' Statute. In case of unlawful dismissal, the worker therefore no longer has the right to reinstatement in the workplace, but only to an indemnity that can be included between 4 and the 24 monthly payment, depending on length of service. E’ it is clear that the repeal of the art. 18 it favored exit flexibility and therefore increased job insecurity. It should also be added that the legislation concerning redundancy payments has been reformulated: those made redundant in new and recurring company crises can only benefit from NASPI, that is, unemployment benefit alone.

There are therefore twenty fewer with the recent labor reform, essential social protection tools for employment. The progressive dismantling of the welfare state is now a fact, occurred following the liberalization of the labor market.

Already since 2016, the total decontribution bonuses for new hires no longer apply, for which there was only a partial exemption, new permanent contracts recorded a decline in 27% compared to 2015, but at the same time fixed-term contracts had an increase of 73%. This trend has gradually become more pronounced subsequently. However, a high percentage of the contracts with total exemption from contributions had a duration of less than 36 months expected. E’ However, the use of temporary work has grown exponentially.

In recent years, fixed-term contracts have increased by 400.000 unit: fixed-term work has taken on increasingly greater dimensions until it reaches the percentage of 14% of the total employed.

It is also necessary to note the effects of the abolition of vouchers. Such a tool, introduced by the Renzi government for the emergence of casual work (mostly done in black), gave rise to gross abuses: illegal work and indiscriminate exploitation were effectively legalized. But the abolition of vouchers has led to massive recourse by companies to on-call employment contracts: a new and more widespread precariousness of work.

In reality, the demagogic effects of the Jobs Act and the labor reforms of the last five years are visible today. The increase in precariousness is in any case compliant with the objective of making work more flexible imposed by the EU.

Work precariousness had already been encouraged by the Poletti decree of 2014, with which the possibilities of using fixed-term contracts were expanded: with this decree the possibility of renewing fixed-term contracts up to 5 times in 3 years, at the discretion of the companies, who thus had no incentive at all to hire with a permanent contract.

With the Jobs Act, in open violation of the principle of equality enshrined in the constitution, a harmful dualism between older workers has been established in Italy, provided with all the trade union and social security protections provided for by the Workers' Statute, and the young people who, with equal qualification, but assumed with the new legislation, they are to all intents and purposes precarious workers and do not benefit from the social protection of the elderly.

The enormous growth of precarious work is also documented by the fact that the increase in employment was matched by the growth in layoffs and the percentage of companies with over 15 employees increased by 20%. The repeal of the art. 18 favored the liberalization of the labor market.

The increase in job insecurity will have devastating consequences on the stability of the pension system in the near future. The same economic recovery as in recent years, with the massive use of labor mobility, reveals all its fragility and highlights the climate of continuing uncertainty for the future that dominates our economy.

Insecurity does not favor economic growth, it does not allow adequate training for young people and discourages investment in innovation. On the contrary, the exaggerated mobility of labor constitutes an incentive for the emigration of human resources available in the highly specialized sectors of the economy. The shortage of manpower recorded in Italy in highly specialized technological sectors is a visible effect of this process of job precarization.

The IMF itself has found that job flexibility and precariousness constitute an incentive for companies not to innovate: with the compression of labor costs, profits can in fact be achieved to the detriment of investments in innovation. However, with the development of new, more advanced production techniques, labor productivity could be increased. The neoliberal theory according to which the liberalization of the labor market can constitute a factor in the development of the economy is therefore revealed to be completely unfounded.. The fact that labor productivity has grown in Italy in 20 just years old 5 points constitutes the most evident denial of neoliberal economic theories.

The employment emergency, which was cleverly hidden with the use of temporary hiring incentive tools, such as the Jobs Act, is dramatically re-emerging today.

The failure of the neoliberal model imposed by the EU is evident. But proposals and programs for new alternative development models still remain lacking in Italian institutional politics.