The debate that opened immediately after the announcement by the Deputy Prime Minister, as well as the Minister of Economic Development and Labor Luigi Di Maio, of wanting prohibit the opening of shops during holidays, repealing the liberalization adopted by the Monti government with the Italian Decree in 2012, has raised more concerns than consensus, prompting the leader of the 5Stelle to make a partial correction that would allow 25% of the commercial structures to remain open (on a rotational basis) even on Sundays.
A government-sourced draft of the standard is not yet available: the story follows the confused path of most of the measures of this impossible majority for which declarations, announcements, indiscretions, produce a tangled skein of news, difficult to unravel, but very useful in producing fuss that clears up only when the government majority it has found a compromise and can go united in Parliament. Usually the Table of the Law to refer to is the contract for the Government of the change, which however does not contain any specific indications in this regard.
On this matter, as on others, different lines of the two government parties face each other. The League has proposed to exclude tourist resorts from the future provision, which could however mean the whole of Italy. Salvini's party shows greater sensitivity on employment issues, in harmony with its electorate in which, however, it must also take due account of an important organization such as Confcommercio, which represents shopkeepers. The 5 Stars could count on the trade unions, which, however, do not seem to have liked very much being overtaken with a simple announcement by Di Maio without any explicit reference to bargaining to minimize the feared occupational damage.
Without to forget the Catholic Church, whose influence on a theme of this kind could however be limited. It can be assumed that those most in favor of closing on holidays are found among the employees of shopping centres, but it would not be a surprise if among the younger workers of large-scale distribution and without family commitments, opening on holidays was seen as an opportunity to earn something more and have more autonomy in organizing one's free time. Given the high number of customers (12 million) who frequent the large commercial structures on holidays, it should be deduced that the majority of residents in our country accept or in any case are not hostile to Sunday openings.
On the other hand that's all to demonstrate that the Sunday block of sales can be an advantage for small businesses which today is developing on the side of the professional specificity of the offer and the personal relationship with the consumer. Instead, this aspect still remains open, the closures of shopping malls on Sundays are certainly a favor (unpredictable?) for web-commerce, which would not be easy to impose effective operating constraints during the holidays.
The most important question remains the one asked for the effects of the Dignity Decree: How many jobs could be lost as a result of this rule coming into force? The forecasts (authoritative studies are not available at the moment, or in any case have not been made public) indicate the possible unemployed in the order of a few tens of thousands, but we are still in the propaganda phase of the comparison. The most concerned are the managers of large-scale distribution, who are busy wondering how to reduce the damage that would result from a significant drop in sales volumes.
Federdistribuzione, the association of large-scale retail trade is working hard to explain the negative effects of the measure to local parliamentarians and administrators. The Democratic Party has already taken a clear position and is already talking about 30.000 jobs at risk but the League of Cooperatives could take a softer attitude inclined to find a solution to reduce the opening days on holidays in the contractual context. On the other hand, the opening or closing of commercial establishments on Sundays are not matters that are of too much interest to the rating companies which cause the spread to rise, nor will a change in the rules in question certainly affect the stability of the public finances. So the material lends itself very well to enhancing the identity marketing of a political force with experimentation in corpore vili without running any immediate electoral risk.
For the moment the only real victims seem to be the employees of large-scale retailers holding fixed-term contracts which, at present, will not be easily renewed. Businesses are preparing for an intense campaign of persuasion to convince the political forces that the effects of the Sunday closure will be heavy and will negotiate to reduce its scope. In the end, the large commercial chains will make a virtue of necessity by trying to minimize the excess staff that may arise. The times for changing the law do not seem very fast.
This provision, especially if it goes through without postponing negotiations between the social partners, will certainly not serve, as Luigi Di Maio claims with somewhat ridiculous rhetoric, to "save the destruction of Italian families which began with the liberalized timetable of Government of Mario Monti”, but only to produce a few thousand more unemployed who will be added to those who are already materializing in recent days as a result of the Dignity Decree.
On this road we go to the foretold gradual dismantling of the Jobs Act, restoring the paradoxical case of Redundancy Fund for cessation of activity (rightly abolished by the Renzi Government) and thus re-proposing a rule which on the one hand forbade companies to go bankrupt and on the other offered the workers concerned not active instruments of relocation but only forms of long-term passive assistance. It is all too clear that the government pact between Lega and 5Stelle shows clear signs of difficulty and gradual wear and tear, but any clarification is postponed for a few months, when the public budget will be discussed and approved with comparisons within the European Union and in expectation of the effects that will be produced on the international markets. Time will tell.
