In June 2002, on the occasion of the first 'world day against child labour', Italy's Istat statistical institute presented a study on the subject. It finds that in Italy there are some 150,000 children aged between seven and 14 who work, including around 32,000 who are subject to exploitation. Child
On 31 May 2002, negotiations resumed between the Italian government and social partners over the former's reform plans, following a period of intense conflict between the government and trade unions. The parties will negotiate over a range of issues related to the labour market, taxation, the South
Following the announcement of very poor financial results for the first quarter of 2002, largely due to problems in its automobile division, the Italian-owned industrial group Fiat adopted a strategic recovery plan in May. The reorganisation programme, which is now subject to discussions with the
In late April 2002, the Italian government approved new legislation which seeks to promote the 'regularisation' of 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. The
On 16 April 2002, the three main Italian trade union confederations - Cgil, Cisl and Uil - held a general strike to protest against the centre-right government's labour market reforms. The unions claim that 90% of workers took part in the strike, while employers put the figure at less than 60%
On 23 March 2002, Italy's Cgil trade union confederation organised a major demonstration in Rome against the centre-right government's economic policy and, following the murder of Marco Biagi, against terrorism. The event was claimed to be Italy's largest demonstration since the Second World War.
The three main Italian trade union confederations, Cgil, Cisl and Uil, called an eight-hour general strike for 16 April 2002 in protest at the government's proposed labour reforms. This is the first such action to be called for 20 years and marks a crisis point in Italian industrial relations.
Uil, one of Italy's three main trade union confederations, held its 13th national congress in March 2002 in Turin. The congress was dominated by the conflict between the unions and the government on the latter's proposals for reform of the labour market, the pension system and the tax system. Debate
On 19 March 2002, Marco Biagi, an Italian labour law and industrial relations expert and government consultant, was murdered by terrorists. He was one of the group responsible for drafting the government's controversial White Paper on labour market reform. His murder brought condemnation and
In February 2002, the Italian airline Alitalia initiated a statutory procedure which may result in 2,600 redundancies, after negotiations with trade unions on labour cost reductions failed. Management and unions now have until May to reach an agreement to reduce labour costs and prevent job losses