GENEVA, NOVEMBER 25TH- “Thanks to the reforms adopted this year, Italy is among the most advances countries of the International Organization of Labour (ILO) in terms of social protection”, Nunzia Catalfo, Minister of Labour and Social Politics, said during her address in Geneva to an interactive debate organized during the Global Social Protection Week. Participating at the debate were also Guy Rider, Director General of ILO, representatives of the governments of Finland, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the Secretary Generals of the International Confederations of Unions and Employers.
“The latest policy reforms in Italy have been the ‘citizen’s basic income’ and the ‘citizen’s pension’, both necessary measures as, in only one one decade, the number of poor, which in 2008 counter 2.1 million, increased to over 5 million individuals. Catalfo also underlined the rise in Italy of the “working poor” phenomenon, when people go to work, but their income fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs.
In only 7 months, the ‘citizen’s income’ and ‘citizenship pension’ have had great impact on the diminishing of inequalities, observed the Minister, citing also the establishment of a system of reinforcement and reform for the active politics of labour, with the Public Employment Centers and uniform information systems.
The Global Social Protection Week will provide a roadmap for the future of social protection within the framework of the ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work adopted last July. The event hopes to open a path towards universal social protection.
Catalfo recalled that in the 2020 budget law an increase – of up to 7 days – of is foreseen for paternity leave as well as an enhancement of the apparatus for the protection of working women in periods which precede and follow the birth of a baby. The financial maneuver establishes a special fund for disabilities with the goal to approve a framework law on the subject. A proposal to recognize the figure of the family caregiver is also under consideration in the Senate. (SB@OnuItalia)
