INDECENTE.

"IL LAVORO NON E' UN DIRITTO". Elsa Fornero in una intervista al Wall Street Journal (qui sotto in originale).Non riconosce neanche più l'articolo uno della Costituzione.

L'INTERVISTA ORIGINALE. Italy Official Seeks Culture Shift in New Law By CHRISTOPHER EMSDEN ROME—Italy's Parliament is due to approve a watershed labor law on Wednesday, the last of the economic overhauls the country pledged to its European partners amid the region's debt crisis. But even the new law's architect says its ultimate success will hinge on a deeper cultural change in Italy. "This reform isn't perfect, but it's a good reform, especially for those starting out in the job market," Elsa Fornero, the economics professor who is labor minister in the technocrat government, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "But this is also a wager on Italians changing their behavior in many ways." One of the key tenets of the new law is that employers will be able to lay off individual workers for economic reasons. Until now, companies have had to jump through long and expensive hoops to lay off employees in order to downsize during slumps—a practice many economists say is the key reason for Italy's low level of foreign direct investment and stagnant productivity. Enlarge Image Nadia Shira Cohen for The Wall Street Journal Italian Labor Minister Elsa Fornero says 'we're trying to protect individuals, not jobs' under the new law. More Transcript: Italy's Labor Minister On Reforms Tuscan Bank to Get Government Aid Earlier: Culture of Family-Run Firms Tests Italy's Growth Plan (11/14/2011) Opinion: Employment, Italian Style (6/25/2012) At the same time, the new law brings Italy closer in line with most advanced economies in offering a universal jobless-benefit program. Currently, this is available only to workers with lifetime contracts, and not to millions of others, especially younger Italians working on fixed-term, often low-salary, contracts. The trade-off of looser employment protection compensated by broader welfare provisions replaces an entrenched and litigious system that has left Italy with the euro zone's second-lowest employment rate, after Malta. "We're trying to protect individuals not their jobs," said Ms. Fornero, 63 years old. "People's attitudes have to change. Work isn't a right; it has to be earned, including through sacrifice." Getting to parliamentary approval hasn't been easy—and more controversy may lie ahead. Since January, when Ms. Fornero waded into the 1970 Workers' Charter that is the backbone of Italy's labor laws, she has clashed with both the business establishment and unions. Confindustria, Italy's main business lobby, has loudly criticized a requirement that companies pay higher payroll taxes for fixed-term employees in order to help fund the new broader unemployment-insurance plan. Streaming Coverage Follow every article, blog post, video and tweet on the debt crisis from our reporters across Europe. Euro Zone by the Numbers The 17-nation euro zone is a collection of countries with vastly different economic profiles. See how they stack up on the major measures. View Interactive Euro Zone Crisis Tracker Charting the Euro Zone Crisis Key Players in the Crisis: Bios, Quotes More photos and interactive graphics Susanna Camusso, head of CGIL, Italy's largest labor union, said the new rules won't create jobs and thinks the new unemployment insurance should be more generous. At one point, Ms. Camusso described Ms. Fornero as someone with a "passion for firing people." In its rush to get the labor bill approved this week—ahead of a crucial summit of European Union leaders on Thursday and Friday—the government has agreed to let Italy's political parties make some tweaks to the measures even after its Wednesday approval. It is still unclear how Italy's parties will use the opportunity: Conservative parties, for example, want to hold on to the more than 40 types of contracts that companies can use to hire people, often for temporary stints. Italy's center-left parties want to prolong programs that allow workers to stay on subsidized furloughs for as long as seven years. Ms. Fornero said the government will agree to "small adjustments, but no major changes." Perhaps the biggest significance of Ms. Fornero's effort is that the law has dismantled the most sacred cow of Italy's labor law—Article 18 of the Workers' Charter. Article 18 aimed to eliminate discriminatory practices at the workplace, but was immediately expanded to provide blanket employee protections. It has been politically toxic ever since. Some 13 million people joined a general strike when the government tried to dilute Article 18 in 2002. Under the law to be approved, discrimination remains illegal. But if companies want to dismiss employees for economic motives, they can expect to pay an indemnity instead of facing the risk of long legal disputes and a ruling that they rehire fired workers. "This reform, unlike past efforts, actually goes to the heart of the matter," said Marcello Giustiniani, a labor specialist at Milan law firm Bonelli, Erede & Pappalardo that has worked with multinational clients for 25 years. He says the new law reduces legal uncertainties regarding dismissals and is likely to motivate employees to work better—something that could boost productivity. Italy's productivity gap with Germany has widened by more than 30% since the euro was introduced. The law will likely lead to "less waste and petty corruption," said Antonio Bruzzone, a senior manager at Fiera di Roma, a trade-fair organizer. "Once workers know their job security depends on their company's health, all sorts of behavior that have been tolerated will become unacceptable." Ms. Fornero, whose soft-spoken, teacherly way of speaking makes her adversaries bristle, allowed for some changes to be made gradually. For example, ASPI, the new unemployment-insurance plan—which offers fewer and shorter benefits than existing programs but extends them to more people—will go into effect next year, while old programs will be phased out by 2017. "Italy is not a cold-shower country," she said. Another practice the law aims to curb: At least half of Italy's two million self-employed workers perform routine work on the premises of a single client. Under the new law, such clients would have to offer workers earning less than €18,000 ($22,519) a year proper contracts. Labor is the second big European agenda point Ms. Fornero has taken on. In December—as Italy tried to find €10 billion in annual relief for its public finances—the minister masterminded an emergency decree cutting pension benefits for current retirees and raised the retirement-eligibility age to 68, the highest in Europe. Those measures essentially sped up a 1995 law whose implementation had been routinely postponed by the past 10 governments. That overhaul of Italy's pension system—which has been lauded by European officials—links retirement checks to how much a person contributes to the national pension system over their lifetime, rather than based on an amount pegged to their highest, final salary at the end of their work life. Ms. Fornero said the pension and labor shake-ups aim ultimately to usher in more uniform and universal laws for everybody. That has long been anathema to the country's power brokers—political, labor and business alike—because it makes it harder to justify special exemptions. "Italy is not a rule-bound place," Ms. Fornero said. "It's a land where people rig the system, tweak here and there, and engage in tailor-made adjustments." She added: "That's got to stop." Write to Christopher Emsden at chris.emsden@dowjones.com A version of this article appeared June 27, 2012, on page A10 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Italy Official Seeks Culture Shift in New Law.