In December 2004, the German-based steelmaking group ThyssenKrupp apparently went back on a 2004 agreement with the Italian government and trade unions by announcing the imminent closure of some of its operations in Terni, Italy. Its restructuring plan will lead to the immediate exit from the
Research published in October 2004 examines women's participation in the labour market in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. The region has a higher female labour market participation rate and lower female unemployment rate than the Italian average. However, among other findings, the study
On the basis of a 2003 labour market reform law, a new contractual arrangement known as 'staff leasing'- both open-ended and fixed term - was introduced in Italy in August-September 2004. The new scheme replaces temporary agency work. In August, the largest temporary work agency associations applied
An important deal on the renewal of the national collective agreement for Italy's 82,000 industrial managers was reached in September 2004 by the Confindustria employers' confederation and the Federmanager managers' association. The accord is highly innovative and introduces significant changes with
This article gives a brief overview of the industrial relations aspects of undeclared work in Italy, as of June 2004. It looks at: the nature and extent of undeclared work; the regulatory framework; the role, activities and views of the social partners; and partnerships between social partners and
After some months of negotiations between management and trade unions, in May 2004 a collective agreement was signed at Atesia, the call centre for Telecom Italia (Italy's largest telecoms operator). The deal aims to achieve greater job stability, by gradually changing the status of all 4,350
In May 2004, the First World Congress on Child Labour was held in Florence, Italy. The organisers included the main Italian trade union confederations - Cgil, Cisl and Uil - as well as the Global March against Child Labour, a major international organisation involved in combating child exploitation
The centre-right coalition of parties elected in May 2001, the House of Freedoms (Casa delle Libertà), continued to govern during 2003, led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The coalition is composed of Forza Italia, the National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale), the Northern League (Lega Nord) and
In October 2003, the board of the Italian airline Alitalia approved an industrial plan for 2004-6 which envisaged 2,700 redundancies. The plan triggered a fierce conflict with the trade unions and led, on 19 January 2004, to a strike throughout Alitalia. The dispute between the management and the
A law reforming the Italian labour market enacted in 2003 introduced important changes relating to 'semi-subordinate' work (midway between dependent employment and self-employment). The law provided for the conversion of 'employer-coordinated freelance contracts', a common form of semi-subordinate