Ape social, baby bonuses, fixed-term contracts, small and medium-sized enterprises: the amendments presented yesterday to the maneuver touch on various chapters. The vote in the Budget Committee in the Chamber will begin today, Thursday, but in all there are over a thousand proposed amendments to be examined and time is now running out. The maneuver should arrive in the Chamber on Tuesday 19 December, at the latest in the afternoon. To meet this deadline, the commission has already scheduled overnight sessions over the weekend.
Let's see in detail what is the content of the main amendments to the 2018 Budget Law.
SOCIAL BEE
Among the main innovations, the Government has filed the amendment to the Maneuver which extends theSocial bee to four new categories of hard workers. At 11 already scheduled for the Ape Social are added:
- agricultural, zootechnical and fishing workers;
- employed fishermen or members of cooperatives;
- first and second melting steel workers and glass workers involved in high temperature work;
- seafarers embarked on board and traveling personnel of marine transport and in inland waters.
For these same 15 categories, the Senate has already decided to stop adjusting the retirement age to life expectancy, a mechanism which for all the others will raise the bar to 67 in 2019.
The discount on access requirements to the Ape social for working women also rises from six months to one year for each child (up to a maximum of two years).
The amendment to the Maneuver on the social Bee presented by the Government "is what we have agreed with the trade unions, we have tried to improve some steps" but "it fully corresponds to that document and we have recovered the resources" commented the Minister of Labour, Giuliano Poletti.
BABY BONUS
Among the amendments filed there is also that of the Ap to extend until 2020 the baby bonus in the current version, which provides for 80 euros per month (960 per year) for the first three years of the child's life. There version of the baby bonus released by the Senate, on the other hand, stabilizes the measure but halves the amount of the check starting from 2019.
TERM CONTRACTS
An amendment presented by the work manager of the Democratic Party, Chiara Gribaudo, aims to reduce the maximum duration of the "acausal" fixed-term contract from 36 to 24 months, introduced in 2014 and then systematized in the Jobs Act. The Government also aims to reduce from five to three the maximum number of extensions.
Written this way, however, the amendment risks creating problems for those with existing or expiring employment relationships. For this reason, the Executive intends to correct it, specifying that the new rules will apply only to new contracts signed for the first time between companies and workers. The news will not even affect the public administration, at least until the stabilizations announced by the minister Marianna Madia are completed.
The aim of the amendment is to encourage permanent recruitment. However, many experts believe it will have the opposite effect, increasing the number of precarious workers. The risk is that, by reducing the duration of the contracts, temporary work will be shared among a greater number of people. On this front, however, the CGIL agrees with the Democratic Party: for the secretary Susanna Camusso "shorter-term contracts would be a good sign".
SMEs
Other proposed amendments aim to allow small and medium-sized craft and commercial enterprises to deduct warehouse losses by exploiting the same regime as large enterprises.
In essence, it is a question of correcting the simplified regime introduced with the last manoeuvre. The legislation allows companies in simplified accounting to pay Irpef and Irap only on the income actually collected. However, it is currently not possible to subtract losses incurred between one year and the next. For this reason, over two million sole proprietorships renounce the simplified regime, preferring the more expensive ordinary accounting.
The amendments to the maneuver intend to solve this problem by allowing companies in simplified accounting to deduct operating losses and those deriving from participation in general partnerships and limited partnerships.
NOTHING TO DO FOR ANNUITIES, INPS GOVERNANCE AND IUS SOLI
Among the amendments removed, explains the president and rapporteur Francesco Boccia (Pd), there are those relating to the "reform of the governance of Coni and Inps, annuities, the rules on civil and criminal justice". The crackdown on the use of mobile phones while driving and the proposals that aimed to introduce the ius alone via an amendment in maneuver have also failed.
