"The Italian legislation on fixed-term employment contracts in the school sector is contrary to EU law,". To say it is a sentence of the EU Court of Justice which rejects, thus, the substitute system used in the Italian state school.
With this pronouncement, the Court answers the question posed by the Constitutional Court and the Court of Naples and takes the side of the temporary workers, against the unlimited renewal of contracts, considered "not justified to satisfy the permanent and lasting needs of state schools". The Italian legislation, continues the sentence, "does not provide for any measure aimed at preventing the abusive use of a succession of fixed-term employment contracts".
The EU ruling originated from the lawsuits brought by a group of precarious workers hired in public institutions as teachers or collaborators, on the basis of fixed-term employment contracts. The workers had asked for the requalification of their contracts into an open-ended employment relationship and compensation for the damage suffered.
In any case, the ruling of the European court does not resolve the national dispute. It is, in fact, only a reference for a preliminary ruling, or rather that mechanism by which the judges of the Member States can consult the court for an interpretation of Community law.
Despite this, for the Anief-Confedir union, it is "A historic victory, which comes five years after the press report and a dispute started in the Labor Courts for thousands of substitutes". According to the union, from now on "250 precarious workers can ask for stabilization and compensation for 2 billion euros in addition to seniority accrued between 2022 and 2012 after the first two years of service and the summer months on a vacant post".
The European standards, continues the Anief-Confedir note, "do not allow legislation that authorizes the renewal of fixed-term contracts for the filling of vacant and available posts of teachers and administrative, technical and auxiliary staff, without indicating certain times for the completion of said insolvency proceedings and excluding compensation for the damage suffered due to such a renewal."
