Voluntary Occupational Welfare

in Italy

Brussels, 5th December 2013

Ugo Ascoli

Marche Polythenic University

The Italian Welfare State

2. A Welfare State caracterised also by strong familism,

clientelism and dualism

1. A mix between occupational (pensions and

unemployment), universalistic (health care and

education) and residual (social care and housing)

schemes

The transformations over the last two decades have mainly

followed a mix between a “retrenchment” and a

“restructuring” path

Health care, Reconciliation and

Education and training policies in Italy

Health Care: cost containment, cuts and copayment, slow

growth of per capita health expenditure and

regionalisation

Reconciliation: measures to support reconciliation very

poor, family policies underdeveloped, child care services

with a very low level of coverage

Education and Training: not a field of relevant public

action; the public system not very efficient; relevance of

programmes by enterprises

Industrial relations in Italy

The main features:

- a medium-high level of union density (33%)

- a high rate of collective bargaining coverage (80%)

- a good propensity for social dialogue

- a strong capacity for mobilisation in industrial actions

The changes with the economic crisis:

- Less Social Dialogue

- Shift from Industry-wide bargaining to the territorial and

company level

- Strong and rapid diffusion of “Bilateral organisms” to cope

with many welfare measures

VOW in Italy: Pensions and Health

Care

Pensions:

- 1993 introduction of the second pillar

- cuts and reform in the public system

- 5 million members of supplementary pensions (22% total

employment)

- great fragmentation of protection against risk related to old

age

Health Care:

- booming of Health Care Integrated Funds (HCIFs) at a

industrial sector level and at the company level

- 4 million members of HCIFs (20% total employment)

- increasingly playing a substitutive role of the NHS

- potential mechanism of NHS delegitimizing and policy drift

VOW in Italy: Reconciliation and

Education and Training Reconciliation:

- diffusion of flexible working time policies (including part-

time work)

- diffusion of maternity and paternal leave through collective

agreements

- increasing diffusion of child care services inside and thanks

to enterprises

Education and training:

- strong diffusion in medium-large size enterprises (80% of

enterprises with more than 250 employees offer CVET)

- a lower participation rate compared with other Countries

- bilateralism now assuming a key role

- the growth of inter-professional funds thanks to agreements

among Government, Trade Unions and Enterprises

1. Occupational welfare through sector-level bargaining

It is around two pillars that the OW through sector-level bargaining takes place in Italy:

a) supplementary pensions schemes

b) integrative health care funds

Type: % Workers who affirm that their enterprise offers

directly or reimburses:

- health care, health care funds 30.0

- support for education and training 30.1

- allows regularly flexible working hours for personal

reasons

21.9

- kindergarten 2.3

Type: % of firms having introduced welfare provisions

Pension fund 87.5

Health fund 60.6

Availability of extra leave 27.6

Income supports 23.3

Scholarships 23.1

Child care services 18.5

Ltc fund 9.4

Housing 6.7

2. What happens inside enterprises

Timing of OW in large Italian

enterprises (2012)

Year of institution

Provisions of welfare Before 2001 2001-2005 2006-2012

Scholarships 60.0 20.0 20.0

Pension fund 61.1 17.9 21.0

Integrative Health care fund 35.4 12.5 52.1

Ltc fund 13.3 86.7

Child care services 20.0 22.9 57.1

Availability of extra leave 52.3 15.9 31.8

Factors affecting the growth of

occupational welfare in Italy

Motivations of enterprises for the introduction of welfare provisions in the

workplaces

Exchange of welfare services vs. wage moderation 38.1%

Collaboration between business and employee 33.3%

Fidelization of workers 22.3%

Union's power of lobbying at the firm level 18.1%

Paternalism of the employer 7.2%

Potential negative consequences of

VOW in Italy

2. Potential negative effects with respect to universalism

in health care: clear possibility that funds will become a tool to

undermine the NHS universalist approach, acting as a “policy

drift” mechanism; designed and defined formally for a general

“integrative” aim for raising the level of coverage of the Italian

health care system, they become instruments that tacitly

partially substitute public intervention in a country that has

already a public per capita spending on health among the

lowest in Western Europe.

1. Limited negative effects of VOW in training and

education, as well as in reconciliation: only potential

negative effects are an increase in dualization processes

(workers in big vs. small enterprises, with fixed-term vs. open

ended contracts, white collar workers vs. blue collar ones, etc.)