Thanks to the maxi-amendment presented by the Government (and approved through the use of a vote of confidence), the text of the Poletti 2.0 Jobs Act has taken on the profile of a draft enabling law. We can see that someone remembered article 76 of the Constitution and the obligation to determine criteria and guiding principles when Parliament delegates the legislative function to the executive. Previously, the text, rather than a coordinated set of legal provisions, resembled a manifesto of good intentions.
Despite this due recognition, many problems persist. The version that is about to cross the gauntlet that awaits it in the Chamber maintains, internally, evident imbalances as regards the sphere in which the delegated decrees will have to move: some parts contain very detailed indications for the preparation of the decrees legislative, others remain generic and, above all, equivocal as they are open and susceptible to substantially different evolutions and non-univocal developments.
And, unfortunately, the normative chiaroscuro is much more intense where the political debate has been and still is more pressing and controversial. Therefore, on the most delicate issues, there is still a considerable discrepancy between what emerges objectively from the rules (according to the general principles of the interpretation of the laws) and what is stated in the debate, so much so that the bitter controversy underway between the supporters and the opponents of the measure almost never turn to the text, but to the statements - often extemporaneous - of the main protagonists of the story.
Basically, both those who think they have won, and the others who believe they have been defeated (and who voted with "double" confidence - given the vagueness of the rules - only for party discipline) seem sure that they already know what what will the premier – demiurge at the time of the implementing measures – say: forgetting that laws are not born – like Athena – from the head of Zeus, who suffers from migraine, but from a vote by Parliament.
Having said all this, it is appropriate to move on to a first and summary survey of the maxi-amendment approved, with a single article, at Palazzo Madama, obviously trying to grasp, for each problem addressed, not so much the possible regulatory framework that should arise from the delegations specifications, but rather the model that the Government has in mind to implement in that particular sector.
Social shock absorbers
If it were a question of giving votes, we would feel authorized to affirm that what is defined in points 1 and 2 constitutes one of the most interesting and shareable parts of the provision in relation to the "tools of protection during an employment relationship". In fact, a plan of more intense rationalization and greater rigor in the use of these forms of protection is traced. Recourse to solidarity contracts and to any possible form of reduction in working hours takes priority over access to treatments connected to passive policies; wage subsidies are abolished in the event of termination of the company activity (this means that only ASPI will apply); a greater participation by the user companies is envisaged as well as a remodulation in relation to effective use, the establishment of solidarity funds established by the Fornero law (replacing the Cig in d disburse) is requested; the social benefits are related, in terms of duration, to the contributory history of the workers, ceilings are introduced in relation to the notional contribution; participation in activities for the benefit of local communities is required of those who benefit from integration treatments; the requirement of the state of unemployment for access to welfare services has been eliminated (it will be necessary to understand well what it is about); the sanctions are strengthened for the worker, beneficiary of a form of income protection, who does not make himself available for relocation or participation in a training plan or in activities for the benefit of local communities.
In view of these stricter regulations, the extension (the "universalisation") of ASPI is envisaged also to coordinated and continuous collaboration contracts (is the wording still correct?), to be implemented after two years of experimentation with defined resources ( so we are more relaxed).
active policies
In addition to a rationalization program (aimed at greater and better employability) of the incentives in favor of hiring, self-employment and self-entrepreneurship and the purpose of encouraging bilateralism, the protagonist of this part is certainly the establishment of the National Agency for employment, supervised by the Ministry of Labour, whose functioning is ensured with already available human, financial and instrumental resources.
The Agency, for the tasks that are assigned to it, should play a central role in the field of active policies, starting from the priority mission in the field of relocation and the promotion of the related agreements; knowing how to read, however, between the lines, the limit of a half-completed political operation (the Agency, in fact) clearly emerges, which leaves open numerous contradictions, of which the most significant are the following: it is solemnly stated that the Agency must be assigned (letter e) management skills in the field of employment services, active policies and ASPI”; then it is written (letter r) that "connection mechanisms between the Agency and INPS both at central and territorial level" are to be envisaged.
It is easy to believe that conflicts of competences will arise destined to give rise, at least, to confusion, since it is not easy to understand what the "management competences" attributed to the Agencies could be, but different from those which will remain as a prerogative of the Inps. But the banana peel on which the whole system (and hopes) of the Agency slips is literally found. u ): "maintenance of the autonomous regions and provinces with the competences regarding the planning of active employment policies". Probably, it was not possible to do otherwise since the powers to the Regions in matters of active policies are attributed by constitutional norms and that the current Government is strongly influenced by the lobby of the administrators of the territorial bodies; however, many doubts remain that the Agency will turn into a superstructure of little use, although the need for greater centralization in the field of active policies is widely felt.
Administrative simplification
Could a chapter dedicated to rules that simplify the obligations to which companies are required in the field of work be missing? Given the efficiency philosophy of the current government, it was normal to expect it. Worth mentioning in particular is the fact that simplification and rationalization must also concern the (indeed complicated) rules of hygiene and safety in the workplace as well as the program concerning the activity of the inspection services which, in addition to combating tax evasion more adequately, will be aimed at establishing, thanks to coordinated procedures, a less (unnecessarily) oppressive and persecutory relationship between the bodies in charge and the employers.
Reorganization of working relationships
We have thus arrived at point 7, which contains the issues on which an exhausting catchphrase is underway, between the parties and above all within the Democratic Party. Yet, in the opinion of the writer, the left should recognize itself more than the center-right on the overall design contained in the delegation. We explain why. Paradoxically, the point in question remains obscure as regards the regulatory system (how can one speak of article 18, reinstatement or dismissal if these words are completely absent from the text?), but the cutting of the project is clearly evident.
The Galilean conception of the labor market is abandoned and one returns to the Ptolemaic one, putting back the open-ended employment contract (mind you, the current one, not the newly minted one, "with increasing protection in relation to length of service", which will only apply to new hires) at the center of the world of work "as a privileged form of employment contract making it more convenient than other types of contract in terms of direct and indirect costs". Since when has this also been the opinion of the centre-right, whose exponents are always prompt in citing Marco Biagi's thought under all circumstances? Instead, the Bolognese professor, assassinated by the Red Brigades, did not think at all of introducing flexible types of entry into the law that bears his name, in order to allow employers to circumvent the trap of article 18 on exit.
Biagi rightly believed that the fragmentation existing in the reality of the labor market could be addressed in an adequate and pertinent way - and useful for companies and workers - only through the provision of a range of specific contracts aimed at regulating the diversity of relationships of work, instead of imposing on them, by legislative means, a sort of reductio ad unum in the context of an indefinite-term contract (no longer "single", even if for a long time it was thought that this was a possible solution) albeit less oppressive and police with regard to the protection of dismissal.
If the provisions of the Poletti Jobs Act no. 2, will go through and the delegated decrees will be consistent with those obscure principles that can be deciphered between the lines, the project is aimed not only at putting the permanent contract back at the center of the labor market (tout court), at pruning as much possible those atypical relationships which, ordered and governed precisely by the Biagi law of 2003 (together with the Treu package of 1997), made it possible, even in a context of modest economic growth, to increase the number of employed persons by 3,5 million and halve unemployment. The reform of the fixed-term contract, which nevertheless represents the keystone of flexibility, will also run serious risks, after the abolition of the "causalone" for the entire duration of the 36 months and the possibility of as many as 5 extensions.
But this typology cannot fail to be "made consistent" with the new open-ended contract, precisely because the two contractual forms would run in parallel, performing the same function. And the convenience for employers in the use of the liberalized fixed-term contract, even if more onerous, would not leave "vital space" for the new contract, despite the benefits that would be recognized. Again in this part, it should be noted the substantial downsizing, with respect to the initial claims, concerning the introduction, possible and experimental, of the minimum hourly wage (reserved for areas not covered by collective bargaining and for the holders of collaboration relationships).
The extension of the experience of the vouchers, which must be fully traceable, is good. It remains difficult to convince yourself that in six months it will be possible to draw up that simplified organic text which should become the Bible of the new labor law (and be "translatable into English"), unless you take sight unseen, and without adequate checks, some of those works produced in recent years, (self) proclaimed by their authors simplified labor codes.
The conciliation
Following a review of the existing regulations, maternity protection will be extended to all categories of working women. It is positive that art. also applies to parasubordinate mothers. 2116 code civ. regarding the automaticity of services. It is equally positive that the agreements to promote reconciliation, through forms of flexibility in working hours, are encouraged in the context of productivity bonuses. We return (to simplify the methods?) to the theme of resignations and insert childcare services within the activities carried out by the bilateral bodies. A price was then paid to the demon of communication through the so-called gift of leave hours and days off to work colleagues who have serious personal or family problems.
Demandation and remote controls of workers
Both of these aspects indirectly evoke the Workers' Statute (one of the great Innominates of the Jobs Act Poletti 2.0). With regard to the revision of the discipline of duties, the regulation proposes a structured intervention: on the one hand, on a general level, it tends to introduce limits to the modification of the classification as if it wanted to bring the regulatory function within a defined perimeter up to now carried out by jurisprudence; on the one hand, it entrusts company bargaining (but wasn't there already article 8 of law no. 148/2011?) the possibility of identifying further hypotheses. As far as remote controls are concerned, it is a circle-bottom standard whose implementation methods are totally unclear.
