PROTECTION OF WORKERS. — The protection or safeguarding of labor is a principle common to contemporary States, often proclaimed in constitutional charters or in special documents, and specified in numerous laws with regard to bodies or institutions responsible for drafting, applying, assisting with, and supervising labor matters, as well as for the establishment, performance, and termination of employment relationships.
Italy, using a formula different from that of the constitutional texts of other countries, proclaims itself a democratic Republic «founded on labor» (Art. 1), labor which it «protects in all its forms and applications» (Arts. 35 ff.). Like numerous other constitutions, it further proclaims, on the one hand, that every citizen has the duty to perform, according to his abilities and choice, an activity or function contributing to the material or spiritual progress of society, and, on the other hand, recognizes all citizens’ right to work (Art. 4). Full legal recognition of this right as a subjective right would imply recognition also of the passive subject of the relationship (that is, the employer), which may occur in a collectivist regime, in which economic activity is centralized in the State; but not to the same extent in systems where private initiative is free (Art. 41), because in such systems the entrepreneur is precisely free in the establishment, organization, and management of the enterprise. Nevertheless, a subjective right may exist (with compensation for damages in the event of non-performance) if and when limits are imposed—for example, by requiring a minimum number of employees and, at the same time, establishing an order of priority in hiring; or by requiring a percentage of employees drawn from certain categories (here too according to an order of priority); or, finally, by freezing (that is, prohibiting) dismissals.
But the right to work constitutes above all a guiding principle of economic and social policy, because full employment is the primary and greatest protection of workers and an essential factor of well-being and order. The Italian charter therefore adds that the Republic promotes the conditions that make the aforementioned right effective (Art. 4). When full employment is not possible, adequate provision must be made through insurance against involuntary unemployment (cf. Art. 38).
Among the special bodies, the first to be mentioned, in the case of Italy (and here too in partial analogy with other countries), is the National Council of the Economy and Labor, provided for by the Constitution itself but not yet established (after the Superior Labor Council, founded in 1902 together with an attached office, ceased to function in 1925). It is to be composed, in ways to be specified by a law currently under consideration, of experts and representatives of the productive categories, in numbers that take account of their quantitative and qualitative importance. It is an advisory body to the Chambers and the Government; it has legislative initiative (as was also provided for the Economic Council of Germany under the Weimar Constitution of 1919) and may contribute to the drafting of economic and social legislation according to the principles and within the limits established by law (Art. 99), which could extend the Council’s functions to other fields as well, such as the settlement of collective disputes.
The French Constitution of 1946 provides that the «Economic Council» must be consulted on the establishment of a national economic plan whose purpose is the full employment of the population and the rational utilization of material resources (cf. Art. 25).
In many States, a special Ministry is established to direct labor policy and public labor administration. In Italy, it presides over services relating to studies, research, statistics, etc., in the fields of labor, social insurance, and social assistance; the mediation of trade-union conflicts for the conclusion or revision of collective agreements; the preparation of draft laws; and the application of existing regulations. It supervises internal migration, the activities of cooperative societies, vocational education, placement services, etc. In addition to central commissions (such as those for placement and assistance to the unemployed, and for workers’ registers and unified contributions in agriculture), its local organs include the provincial and regional labor and maximum-employment offices, which, among other things, engage in the conciliation of local individual and collective disputes (the office director chairs the special provincial placement commission); and the labor inspectorates, established, amid various changes, as early as 1906 (regional branches, interprovincial or provincial offices, in addition to a central office and a medical inspectorate), bodies concerned above all with supervising enterprises’ compliance with labor-protection regulations, with broad powers, particularly in matters of safety policing. «Emigration centers» may be established by the Ministry, numbering no more than five, to assist emigrant or returning workers and their families. Some other Ministries also perform functions of worker protection within the limited sphere of their specific competence, such as, for example, the Ministries of Industry and Commerce, Transport, and the Merchant Marine, which also act respectively through the mining service (for safety in mining industries), the inspection branches of the civil motor-vehicle service and concessionary transport (for accident prevention), and the port labor offices (at which councils are established). The protection of emigrant workers is a specific responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among territorial bodies, the regions (and especially those with special statutes) have regulatory powers, albeit very limited ones, in the aforementioned field. Social insurance institutions and trade-union associations are of paramount importance, as is the International Labour Organization (v.). Also to be mentioned among the more notable institutions are: the E.N.A.L. (National Agency for Assistance to Workers; transformed from the National Recreational Organization, dating from 1925), intended to promote recreational, artistic, cultural, etc., activities during workers’ free time and to coordinate the initiatives of similar organizations; the National Agency for Assistance to the Orphans of Italian Workers; the National Organization for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy (also independently of working categories); the National Organization for Italian Pensioners (for all social-insurance categories); the National Propaganda Agency for Accident Prevention; the National Institute for the Training and Further Training of Industrial Workers; the National Agency for Training in Commercial Work; and the various institutes for patronage and social assistance (the patronage organizations of the Italian Confederation of Workers, the A.C.L.I., and the O.N.A.R.M.O., the National Confederative Institute of Assistance, promoted by the C.G.I.L., and the National Institute of Social Assistance have been approved).
A first limitation, first chronologically and still also in importance, concerning the formation of the employment relationship, is that relating to minors and women, «half-forces», ruthlessly exploited under an uncontrolled regime of liberalism. The Italian legislation currently in force (1934), which follows and reorganizes provisions that were initially fragmentary and later more organic (since 1886), is inspired not only by considerations of protection for the weaker categories, but also by considerations of social order (ethical, health-related, etc.).
As a general principle, it is forbidden to employ children under the age of 14 (coinciding with the end of compulsory education); exemptions may be granted for twelve-year-olds, for certain kinds of work and in specified circumstances, by the Minister of Labour. The age limit is instead raised to 18 for particular types of work, and, especially in the case of women, to 21; women are also prohibited from underground work in quarries, mines, and tunnels. All minors must have fulfilled their educational obligations and must possess verified physical fitness; the latter requirement is also imposed on adults engaged in certain industrial activities. It is furthermore a general rule that the worker must be provided with a special employment booklet, issued free of charge by the mayor and, for the duration of the employment relationship, kept by the employer, who enters in it all information relating to that relationship, in addition to the information entered, within their respective spheres of competence, by the mayor and the physician, so as to specify every element of the worker’s professional status.
Of the utmost importance is the regulation of placement, recently reworked in Italy (1949). Its fundamental principles may be summarized as follows: 1) placement is a public and free service (in accordance with an approach long established and generally accepted also in international conventions); 2) the exercise of this function, with the aim of effectively safeguarding the freedom to work of all those concerned, falls within the competence of the State, through its provincial labour offices (mentioned above), their branch offices, their placement officers and the latter’s assistants (rather than through the trade unions, except that both workers and employers are represented on the central and local consultative commissions, which also have deliberative functions within the directives issued by the Minister of Labour, and decision-making powers with regard to appeals against certain measures specified by law, with the possibility of a further appeal to the said minister, who decides after consulting the central commission); 3) as a rule (except in the cases provided for by law), employers are required to hire the workers they need from among those registered on the prescribed lists, by making a numerical request according to category and occupational qualification; 4) preference must be given to workers residing in the locality where the work is carried out (or in nearby localities), except where a nominative request is permitted (that is, one identifying the person selected). In assigning workers to employment, consideration must be given as a whole to family responsibilities; length of registration on the lists; economic and property circumstances, also inferred from the employment status of the members of the family unit; and the other factors contributing to the worker’s state of need, while at the same time taking into account the health condition of the family unit. Preference is granted to those who have obtained an occupational qualification in the appropriate courses (v. n. 8); 5) suitable adaptations are permitted for certain categories and special types of work; 6) within certain limits, the new system applies to employees of State administrations and public bodies; 7) financial assistance for the unemployed is reorganized, with the extension of compulsory insurance to agricultural workers and salaried employees without limits on remuneration; 8) the services directed toward vocational training are likewise reorganized (courses for the unemployed, enterprise-based retraining courses, work sites, and schools, with facilities for small businesses and craft workshops).
Special provisions are in force to guarantee employment to former combatants and to categories of persons disabled directly or indirectly as a result of wartime events (the mutilated, invalids, those returning from captivity or deportation, orphans, relatives of the fallen, etc.), requiring employers to select their personnel from among these categories in specified percentages, subject to possession of the necessary fitness. Similar provisions apply to certain mutilated and disabled persons injured at work and to those discharged from anti-tuberculosis sanatoria, with regard to employment in the sanatoria themselves.
One of the employer’s essential and non-derogable obligations is the protection of working conditions. The general rule is established by the Civil Code (“the employer is required, in conducting the enterprise, to adopt the measures which, according to the particular nature of the work, experience, and technology, are necessary to protect the physical integrity and moral personality of employees”: art. 2087); special legislation applies this rule to specific categories of enterprises and workers, with particular regard to hygiene and safety and therefore with the aim of preventing accidents and illnesses, and also with provisions concerning medical advice and assistance. Among the numerous legislative provisions of particular importance are those contained in the general regulation on occupational hygiene (1927), concerning both industrial and commercial enterprises and agricultural ones (with regard to the height, cubic capacity, and surface area of workplaces; semi-basement premises; lighting; temperature; air renewal; seats; baths and sanitary facilities; dormitories; nursing rooms; etc.).
Many further provisions, contained in various enactments, concern the duration of work. Principles already in force before the new republican charter were elevated by it to the constitutional level under the threefold aspect of the working day and (with the requirement that weekly rest and annual paid leave be non-waivable (art. 36), for reasons here too relating not only to the protection of the weaker categories (women and children, provided for in art. 37 of the same charter), but also to social considerations (physical and ethical), which, although indirectly, concern the entire national community, thereby guaranteeing it, insofar as possible, the orderly conduct and the fullest overall enhancement of productive activity. The eight-hour working day, which had been one of the most pressing trade-union demands, was accepted after the First World War both internationally (the Washington Convention, 1919) and nationally (for Italy, cf. the legislation of 1923 and subsequent measures). In the event that the normal working schedule is extended, always within the maximum limits, the employee must be compensated for overtime by an increase in remuneration, generally fixed by collective agreements at a rate higher than the minimum increase prescribed by law. The laws also contain detailed provisions for applying the eight-hour principle in relation to the various types of activity and categories of personnel (with exclusions for some and adaptations for others), to interruptions or pauses, whether more or less lengthy, and their assessment, to the recovery of any interruptions, etc.
Night work too, when not included in regular periodic shifts, must, given its greater burden, be remunerated at a higher rate than daytime work (cf. art. 2108 Civil Code). In this area, in addition to rules adapted to women and children, there are specific provisions for bakery and pastry work and for public transport services.
The working week as a whole must be completed within 48 hours (40 hours for industrial work under certain circumstances); as a rule, the day of rest must coincide with Sunday (cf. art. 2109 of the Civil Code and the relevant law of 1934). In this regard too, any grounds for exemption, derogation, or adaptation, and the related financial consequences, are specified. Other holidays, with pay, are provided for in particular, as are extraordinary leaves of absence (such as in the event of marriage) by collective agreements.
Finally, after one year of uninterrupted service, the employee is entitled to a period of paid annual leave; its duration and the arrangements governing it are established by law (cf. the aforementioned art. 2109; for private employees, the relevant law of 1924), by collective agreements, by custom, or, according to equity, by the judge.
Other limitations concern the power to terminate the employment relationship: such termination may not lawfully occur in cases and within the limits in which the relationship is merely suspended (pregnancy, accident, illness, recall or conscription into the armed forces). Special protection is provided under certain circumstances of time, place, or industry, prohibiting, limiting, and regulating the dismissal of workers, with particular provisions for those entrusted with trade-union or workers’ representative functions, in order to prevent reprisals against them. Nevertheless, the general principle of freedom to withdraw remains, subject to the required notice and the seniority allowance (proportional to the years of service); job security is recognized only in certain sectors of undertakings. Its generalization—always excepting dismissal for «just cause», that is, a disciplinary infraction such as to make even the temporary continuation of the relationship impossible—nonetheless constitutes one of the workers’ highest aspirations.
Violation of the protective provisions for workers may be prosecuted before the competent jurisdictions in criminal proceedings (when it involves offenses, as is frequently provided for by social legislation), and in civil proceedings for financial liability, as well as in administrative proceedings in numerous cases (as with certain forms of insurance and family allowances).