Too many fixed-term contracts, EU refers Italy to the Court of Justice

Brussels – There are too many atypical contracts and too much precarious work: the European Commission says ‘enough is enough’ for Italy’s system and refers the country to the EU Court of Justice for failing to take corrective action, according to the monthly infringement package. “Italy failed to end the abusive use of fixed-term contracts and discriminatory employment conditions,” repeatedly violating the directive on fixed-term work.

In the crosshairs especially is the world of education. According to the EU executive, Italy “does not have the rules in place” necessary to ban discrimination related to working conditions and the abusive use of successive fixed-term contracts. According to the Commission, Italian legislation determining the salary of fixed-term teachers in public schools does not provide for incremental salary progression based on previous periods of service. In a nutshell, “Italy has not taken effective measures to prevent the abusive use of successive fixed-term employment contracts of administrative, technical, and auxiliary staff in State schools.”

The bad news does not end there for the Meloni government, as Brussels decided to pursue the open infringement procedure for failure to align national legislation applicable to honorary magistrates with EU labor law. Again, it questions the labor market and the contractual ‘jungle.’ The Commission considers that Italian legislation continues to be non-compliant with EU law on fixed-term work, part-time work, and working hours. 

The result is that “several categories of honorary judges – honorary justices of the peace, honorary deputy prosecutors, and honorary court judges – do not enjoy the status of a ‘worker’ under Italian national law and are considered volunteers providing services on an ‘honorary’ basis. They receive less favorable treatment than comparable tenured judges regarding several working conditions, such as allowances in case of illness, accidents, pregnancy, fiscal treatment, and paid annual leave.” Italy has two months to convince the Commission not to proceed further, after which Italy could find itself, also in this case, before the EU Court of Justice. 

Once again, findings from the monthly infringement package highlight the country with the most significant number of self-employed in Europe. This labor market has decreasing protections and, above all, does not respect EU regulations.