In October 2002, the Italian cabinet approved the 2003 budget law, which includes measures such as tax cuts, reductions in public administration expenditure and a range of one-off revenue-generating measures. The social partners reacted in different ways to the budget. Employers were harshly
In September 2002, Guglielmo Epifani was elected as general secretary of Cgil, Italy's largest trade union confederation, succeeding Sergio Cofferati. Mr Epifani inherits a breakdown of relations with the other two main union confederations, Cisl and Uil, and a general strike called unilaterally by
New legislation to regulate immigration into Italy came into force in August 2002, and a decree on procedures for regularising the situation of illegal immigrants already in the country was adopted in September. The centre-right government's new immigration legislation has been criticised by both
In August 2002, inflation in Italy started to rise. Under the country's current incomes policy, recently confirmed in the tripartite 'Pact for Italy', pay rises in forthcoming sectoral collective bargaining should not by higher than the government's inflation forecast for 2003, which is 1.4%. Trade
In July 2002, trade unions and management at Italy's Fiat industrial group signed an agreement on a plan for the economic recovery of the troubled group. The agreement seeks to improve the competitiveness of Fiat's automobile division, through measures including over 2,400 redundancies. One of the
In July 2002, employers' organisations and trade unions in the Italian temporary agency work sector signed a new national collective agreement. Alongside provisions on issues such as pay, training and trade union representation, the agreement provides for the creation of a number of joint bodies.
In late July 2002, 36 Italian trade union and employers' organisations signed a joint opinion on measures to 'regularise' irregular work - ie employment which is not declared for tax and social security purposes and does not observe the pay and conditions laid down by sectoral collective agreements
On 5 July 2002, the Italian government, employers' organisations and trade unions - with the notable exception of the Cgil union confederation - signed a major agreement on: incomes policy and social cohesion; 'welfare to work' (including labour market matters); and investment and employment in the
In June 2002, an agreement on various pay and flexibility issues was signed by trade unions and Italy's National Air Traffic Control Agency. The agreement should open the way for the renewal of the national collective agreement for air traffic controllers, which expired in December 2001.
During June 2002, negotiations continued between the Italian government and social partner organisations over the former's reform proposals for the labour market and other areas. However, the Cgil trade union confederation announced its intention to collect signatures to enable it to propose two