Brussels – Italy fails the test on education. The system for recruiting administrative, technical, and auxiliary staff (ATA) “infringes” European Union law,the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in a judgment, effectively overturning the entire system for allocating non-teaching staff posts in the country’s schools.
The European Commission is targeting national rules whereby non-teaching staff are employed on fixed-term contracts to fill temporary vacancies, while such staff may only be hired on permanent contracts through competitive examinations, which are not organised according to a fixed schedule and are restricted to employees in this category who can demonstrate at least two years’ experience under this type of contract. The EU executive considers Italian law to be incompatible with EU law on fixed-term contracts, which imposes restrictions on their use and prioritises permanent recruitment procedures. And in the case brought against Italy, the judges in Luxembourg have ruled in favour of the EU.
The main criticism levelled at the Italian government is that the national regulatory framework “does not set any maximum duration or maximum number of
temporary contracts for ATA staff,” which implies the potential for abuse of these contracts and their extension. In this regard, “the organisation, in the recent past, of competitive examinations leading to the permanent appointment of
ATA staff is also not capable of preventing abuse arising from the use of successive fixed-term contracts, owing to its
ad hoc and unforeseeable nature.”
Speaking of examinations, the Court of Justice of the EU has challenged the requirement of at least two years’ fixed-term service as a condition for entry, arguing that this “encourages the use of such contracts during that minimum period of two
years even though, in reality, they meet permanent and long-term staffing needs.”
Furthermore, the Luxembourg judges continue, “Italy cannot rely on a need for flexibility, since the Italian legislation does not set out specific and
concrete circumstances justifying the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts for ATA staff” and ensuring that
such contracts actually meet such a need for flexibility.
The ruling against Italy merely serves as a reminder of the structural problems the country faces in education and the school system, which are already the subject of further warnings from the European Commission.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
