For the parliamentary progress of the Jobs Act, this week will be crucial because in the Labor Commission of the Chamber, where the former CGIL trade unionists represent the majority of the Pd group, we will begin to understand what the wind is like and whether the discussion can be constructive or will force the Renzi government to once again resort to a vote of confidence. But the world is not waiting for Italy and the news coming from the world of work in the most advanced companies chases each other.
The news that Apple and Facebook have proposed to bear the costs of freezing eggs for their employees came a few days ago, even if it had been predicted for some time. Tim Cook and Mark Zuckemberg will pay for the fertility treatments as well as for the adoption. The coverage guaranteed by American companies is around 20 dollars. Quite a lot, considering that two collection cycles are needed with costs from 7 to 12 thousand dollars each, to which we must add the fees for storage in liquid nitrogen, which can cost from 500 to 3-4 thousand dollars a year. The proposal, also put on the agenda by companies of the caliber of Citigroup and Microsoft, aims to allow women the same career opportunities guaranteed by nature to their male colleagues. In fact, the employees of these companies will be able to choose to freeze their eggs and postpone motherhood to a period of life less burdened by the pressures of a nascent career. Criticisms are important, and cause problems of an ethical, if not religious, nature. There were many grievances from the Catholic world, just as many were the testimonies of women who "made it" having sustained one or more pregnancies at the beginning of their careers. But the initiative by Apple and Facebook marks a leap in quality.
Another innovation, which certainly raises lesser ethical problems than the innovation described above, is that advanced by Richard Branson's Virgin and by Microsoft, in its German division. The Redmond company that abolished fixed working hours since 1998 is now starting another revolution: it will no longer be necessary for its German employees to go to the office and sit at their desks every morning. You can work from anywhere, whether it's a pub, the sofa at home, a bench in the city centre, the shade of a tree in your favorite park. “Physical presence in the office says nothing about the quality of employee performance. On the contrary, it often gives a false image” – explains the director of personnel of Microsoft Germany, Elke Frank. Where the work takes place is not important, the results are the only thing that matters to the German employees of Microsoft. As if to say, the means are not the dividing line for judging the end. Obviously the criticisms have come from several fronts, the most insistent from the unions who claim the danger of a similar drift. Too much flexibility, according to them, can hide a deviation in exploitation. Being called upon at any hour of the day or night will be a necessary side effect of a revolution which nevertheless appears to have many positive aspects. And the response of the employees will be what matters most.
In Italy similar innovations are unfortunately a chimera. Here, when we talk about work we are necessarily talking about unemployment at 12.3%, and youth unemployment at 44.2%. It means talking about the Job's Act, Article 18, the rights at risk of those who already have a job and the few who still don't know where to look for it. There is still no discussion about being for or against the abolition of article 18, for or against the introduction of increasing protections with respect to fixed-term contracts, Cocopros and Cococos. One wonders, however, why we are posing problems that in the rest of the world have either never arisen or have been resolved some time ago. One wonders, certainly, why in the rest of the world people think of a future that only a few years ago we could imagine in the cinema and which is now overwhelmingly becoming a reality, while here we are discussing half a century old rules. We, on the other hand, are in the rear platoon.
