The pension reform "bets everything, and can fail if it doesn't, on a job market that works well". The Minister of Labour, Elsa Fornero, said it clearly in a hearing in the Chamber. In fact, this is the "real challenge" for the minister. In short, the reform works if the market “offers work to young people, women and the elderly. Changing pensions, with all the social sensitivity that I don't lack, is relatively easy, to do it at the table, while making sure that everything fits in a changing economy and society, is the most difficult part”.
The Minister of Labor explains that problems of adequacy of the social security system can arise "with a short, interrupted and badly paid working life". If the labor market remains as it is today, "retirees will be poor, but so are the working people".
And from this point of view, he anticipates some of the interventions that are evidently being thought of: social safety nets and the "retribution curve". Fornero explains: “There are rigidities whereby wages always grow but productivity does not. A growth for which older workers end up costing too much in the face of decreasing productivity and therefore with being pushed out. We must correct this mechanism and provide for the possibility of employing older workers without expelling them from the production cycle".
And the other lever is that of social safety nets: "In a more flexible market we need social safety nets because a worthy society does not leave anyone without an income". To do this, according to the minister, however, resources that come from growth are needed.
As for pensions, Fornero acknowledged that the de-indexation of pensions, envisaged in the manoeuvre, "is not the reform but a reflection of the economic difficulty" and "clearly represents the bitter pill", specifying that this measure "is for two years". The pension reform is "drastic", it has been worked "with an ax", but "after the cuts operation it will have a" long-term breathing space so that the Italians won't have another one in two years' time.
Fornero points out that the goal of the government maneuver is "to give continuity and coherence to the reform", after past interventions which "have not always" been "coherent" with each other. The one indicated by the government provides "greater transparency" by abolishing the "windows" which are "an oppressive Byzantinism". Finally, the contribution is "always sustainable" from an economic point of view and "small adjustments" will be needed.
Then aligning pensions between women and men is also a question of equal opportunities because a sort of "compensation" is unacceptable. Fornero explains: “I am also the minister of equal opportunities: for me equal opportunities must be achieved immediately in schooling, in the labor market, in career progression. I'm less tender – adds Fornero – towards a social structure that segments and discourages and then gives you a sop”.
