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In April 2004, Italian social security institutes and the social partners in the building sector signed an agreement providing for the certification of companies' correct payment of social security contributions. This certificate, which will be obligatory for all companies wanting to take part in public and private tenders for building work, aims to combat irregular and undeclared employment.
In Italy, the industry most affected by 'irregular' employment - ie employment that is not declared for tax and social security purposes (IT0312306F) - is the building sector. According to official Istat data, 15.5% of construction workers are irregularly employed. The incidence of irregular labour is highest in Southern regions - for example, in Calabria 41% of workers in the building sector are irregularly employed. The use of irregular labour in the sector often results in infringement of the safety regulations applying to building sites. The industry's high level of work-related accidents is also thought to be largely due to the use of irregular labour (in 2002, out of 1,100 fatal accidents at work, 290 were in the building sector, according to Inail data).
On 15 April 2004, the National Institute for Social Insurance (Istituto nazionale per la previdenza sociale, Inps), the National Workplace Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto nazionale assicurazione infortuni sul lavoro, Inail) and employers' organisations and trade unions in the building sector signed an agreement. The accord provides for certification of companies' 'regularity' in terms of the payment of contributions to the obligatory social security system and to the occupational accident and illness insurance system. This new scheme - known as the Documento Unico di regolarità contributiva (Durc) - aims to fight undeclared labour in the industry.
Companies wishing to take part in public or private calls for tenders for building work will now need Durc certification (which may be obtained under a 'fast-track' procedure) in order to prove that they are making social contributions correctly. The Durc document must be presented by companies before taking part in public tenders or before starting the work in the case of private tenders. The document will have to be requested from the relevant joint Special Construction Workers' Fund (Casse Edile) (IT9901195N), or from a social security institute which will pass on the request to the Fund.
The Special Construction Workers' Funds, together with Inps and Inail, will carry out the necessary evaluations and provide the information necessary to certify that the contribution position of a company is regular (or not) within 30 days from the submission of the company's request. At the end of this period, the Funds will issue the Durc certificate even if the social security institutes have not yet replied. The Funds will issue the Durc certificate to all companies meeting the following requirements:
Only the Special Construction Workers' Funds established by the social partners which have signed the 'common position' against clandestine employment of 16 December 2003 are able to issue the Durc.
The agreement also provides also for the establishment of a technical committee for the management of the whole system, made up of representatives of the social security institutes and the social partners.
According to all the signatories, the agreement is an important step forward in the regularisation of undeclared labour and irregular companies operating in the building sector. The sectoral trade union organisations affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil), the Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacato Lavoratori, Cisl) and the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil) - Fillea, Filca and Feneal respectively - underlined the importance of having signed an agreement with all the employers' organisations with which they conclude sectoral and local collective agreements. According to the unions, the signature of the agreement will have positive effects on the current negotiations for the renewal of the national sectoral collective agreement for the building industry, which should also seek to develop tools for fighting irregular labour and strengthen the role of joint bodies in this area.
According to Giovanni Guerisoli, president of the board of Inail, the agreement 'plays a very important role mainly for two reasons: first because will make the information systems of Inps and Inail communicate with one another; and second because the information systems of the Special Construction Workers' Funds will have to be able to interact with the Inail and Inps systems and will have to issue, under the direct responsibility of the social partners, a certification declaring the regularity of the insurance and social security position of the employment relationship'.