Italy is scaling back a poverty relief scheme and making it easier to hire workers on a short-term basis, as the rightwing government addresses complaints from employers about the difficulty and costs of recruitment. In a Cabinet meeting Monday, Giorgia Meloni’s government approved a decree aimed at cutting the number of people dependent on state benefits and giving more flexibility to the labour market.
The government will also spend €4bn on a six-month cut in payroll taxes for low-income earners and is cutting taxes on fringe benefits for workers with children, reflecting growing preoccupation with Italy’s low birth rate.
The decree makes it easier to hire workers on short-term contracts and a further scaling down of the basic income scheme launched by the populist Five Star Movement when it led a coalition government in 2019. Employers have long complained that the citizens income scheme, a monthly payment to all unemployed Italians, makes it tough for them to find workers.
The government has also earmarked €4bn to cut the “tax wedge”, the difference between the cost to a business of hiring a worker and employees’ take-home pay. The measure will benefit those earning less than €35,000 a year and will be in force from July to December. Rome is also eliminating taxes on up to €3,000 of annual fringe benefits for workers with children.
In Spain, Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz and Spain’s two main trade unions, UGT and CC.OO have again urged the country’s largest employers’ association, CEOE, to find agreement on a wage increase or else they will call for nationwide strikes.
“We need decent wages that grow in line with inflation (4.1% in April), guaranteeing purchasing power. For this, the wage guarantee clause is essential,” the joint manifesto of UGT and CC.OO published Monday reads. If no wage agreement is reached by the end of the month, the two unions said they would call for strikes, particularly in sectors where employers block wage negotiations.
“Either there is an agreement on wages, or the unions will start to organise, not call, days of mobilisation in autumn” said Pepe Álvarez, Secretary General of UGT, while CC.OO head Unai Sordo confirmed that his union would increase pressure if employers do not negotiate.
“They (employers) have an opportunity, if they want to, to negotiate an agreement that allows us to move forward together. If not, mobilisation is assured”, Álvarez also warned. In January, the two unions proposed a wage increase of up to 4.5 % in 2023 and 3.75 % in 2024 and called for them to be linked to company profits. The CEOE has so far declined to negotiate.
According to a recent report from Harvard Law School the rationale behind a number of recent EU legislation changes focusing on corporate governance has been to prioritise a long-term focus on governance through various transparency measures as well as some concrete requirements for action, and on allowing shareholders and other stakeholders to be well informed.
This is evident in the revised Shareholder Rights Directive adopted in 2017, and also in the most recent legislative initiatives discussed in this review. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the proposed directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence revise current obligations and introduce new ones under EU law regarding company disclosure and corporate governance practices. Additionally, the new November 2022 Directive on gender balance on company boards seeks to harmonise and improve Member State practices regarding gender representation on company boards.
