Scuffles broke out in Milan on Friday (November 14) as students took to the streets to demonstrate against Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s job reforms.
There were anti-government protests in cities from Milan and Rome to Naplesand Palermo in the south, with isolated clashes in which several people suffered minor injuries.
In a deliberate attack on one of the central credos of the Italian left, Renzi has pledged to scrap rules which offer workers in companies with more than 15 employees the right to go to court to win their jobs back in cases of wrongful dismissal.
As well as discouraging foreign employers, he says the rules, which only apply to employees on full contracts, discriminate against workers on short-term contracts that offer virtually no protection.
Major unions, which depend heavily on public services and a declining number of large industrial employers, have resisted the changes, which they say will undermine worker rights.
Economic data on Friday showed Italy is back in recession, underlining how important reform is to Renzi, who needs concrete results to back his calls for more budget flexibility from his EU partners.
The plans currently going through parliament would allow workers laid off for business reasons a financial payoff but no right to reinstatement.
However, under provisions agreed by Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party on Thursday, they would keep provisions that allow courts to order a company to reinstate workers ruled to have been dismissed wrongfully for disciplinary reasons.
Renzi proposes a new contract with a sliding system of job protection that would increase with seniority.
Reuters wires
