Working time and flexibility in Italy
| Autor | Vincenzo Ferrante |
| Cargo | Professor of Labour Law, Law Department. Catholic University of Milan |
| Páginas | 47-54 |
IUSLabor 1/2016
36
WORKING TIME AND FLEXIBILITY IN ITALY
Vincenzo Ferrante
Professor of Labour Law, Law Department
Catholic University of Milan
Introduction
According to OCSE data, the average annual hours worked per dependent worker in
Italy is shifted from 1570 to 1478 in the last fifteen years; consequently the average
usual hours worked on the main job is nowadays 35,4 hours per week. It has to be
stressed that in 2003 the Italian legislation, which dated back to 1923 and to (1919) ILO
Convention n. 1, had to be changed after judgement of the European Court of Justice
(9.3.2000, n. 386) due to implement European Directive 93/104 (Directive n. 88 will be
published only few months later with no further modification in national legislation).
A Legislative Decree (an order taken collegially by the Government on behalf of the
Parliament with the same force of law) so abolished the previous limits of eight hours of
work in the day, to allow employees to work longer. Nevertheless, since them the
average worked hours per worker have shown a steady decline, mainly because of
financial crisis which severely reduced industrial production, while at the same time
special allowances were granted to workers for their partial temporary unemployment.
In the meantime, the percentage of part-time workers followed a reverse and constant
trend: in 2014 part time workers were more than four millions, and represented 18% of
the number of dependent workers (in 2000 the percentage was 13,3%): the increasing
figure is probably due to non-voluntary patterns of work chosen by people forced by
economic crisis to accept a job on a part time basis.
Also the distribution of man and women regarding part-time work is changed with an
increase of male figures up to 9% as a clear indication that part time work is often a full
time job partially declared as regular job.
1. Does the regulation on working time establishes a daily, weekly and/or annual
limit of working hours? If so, what is the maximum working hours?
The regulation on working time in the Italian legal system establishes a daily, weekly
and annual maximum working hours only as an average number, following with no
changes or reductions the limits of the European Directive n. 2003/88.
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