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Part-Time Work Convention, 1994 (No. 175) - Italy (RATIFICATION: 2000)

Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention. Measures to facilitate access to part time work – Voluntary transfer from full-time to part-time work or vice versa. The Committee notes the Government’s explanations concerning recent legislative amendments which partially affect the implementation of the Convention, namely the Stability Act No. 183 of 2011 and the Labour Market Reform Act No. 92 of 2012. The Committee notes, in particular, that under section 22(4) of the Stability Act, the parties to a part-time contract may agree on additional flexibility clauses (that is distributing working time differently over the day, week, month or year) and “elasticity” clauses (that is affecting the length of working time) while the advance notice for employers wishing to change the working time of part-time workers has been reduced from five to two days. In addition, the Committee notes that the Stability Act has repealed the provision of Legislative Decree No. 61 of 2000 making the conversion of a full-time contract into a part-time contract subject to the validation of the Provincial Labour Directorate so that as from January 2012, this conversion no longer requires the approval of the Provincial Labour Directorate. Furthermore, the Committee notes that under the Labour Market Reform Act, part-time workers are given the possibility to withdraw previous consent given in an existing part-time employment contract to the performance of extra hours or to a different working time arrangement. The Government explains, in this respect, that this reform does not introduce a new right to convert a full-time contract to a part-time one but rather a “right to second thoughts” about the previous acceptance of a flexibility clause concerning variable distribution of working time or of an “elasticity” clause providing for longer working hours.

With regard to measures to facilitate access to part-time work, the Committee notes that Decree Law No. 112/2008 has repealed the dissuasive measure of tax increases for recourse to part-time contracts for less than 12 hours per week while Executive Decree of the Ministry of Labour of 19 April 2013 provides for an allowance to be paid to private employers who would take on for a fixed term, whether on a full-time or part-time basis, workers who have lost their jobs in the previous 12 months. The Government adds that measures currently being studied involve the possible transformation of full-time contracts of persons reaching pensionable age into part-time contracts for the recruitment of young people and also the temporary transformation of a full-time contract into a part-time one for family reasons (e.g. raising a child until the age of three or having to care for parents).

The Committee understands that in the current context of financial and job crisis, the Government is seeking to enhance flexible working time arrangements, and to this end, access to part-time employment is promoted. The Government indicates that between 2008 and 2012, part-time work has gone up by 16.4 per cent, or by 9.1 per cent between 2011 and 2012 alone, mostly affecting retail shops, hotel and restaurants and health care. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the impact the recent labour market reforms may have had on part-time employment, and on any measures or initiatives designed to improve job opportunities for those trapped – notably women and young persons – in involuntary part-time work.