On 8th March 2011 the Minister of Labour, Mr. Sacconi, and representatives of all Italian social parties signed a first draft agreement that will lead to a new national directive on work life balance within a year. The agreement is part of the Italian EU2020 strategy action plan to foster equal opportunities at work.

EuroBalance partner Cooperativa Diciannove has been involved in this process through active lobbying via LegaCoop, represented by one of the Italian EuroBalance Champions: dott.ssa Gallini. Dott Gallini participated in the first Italian EuroBalance workshop and has collected feedback about work life balance from other champions who participated.

Most of the following draft measure were already part of the legislative framework, but they applied only to long term and permanent contracts and did not apply to all form of flexible contracts. For this reason, when they will become a directive they will be relevant for a large number of workers across Italy.

The first draft agreement includes new frameworks concerning:

• work-timetables with the introduction of new benefits from:
  • annualised/semesterised hours scheme
  • special flexible timetable (in/out) for the first three years after children-birth, but under a stable total amount of work-time as in National contract
  • compressed working-hour within daily turns
  • negotiated solutions to allow parents to bring children to kindergarden and primary school
• part time regulation with new benefits from:
  • chance to reduce a full-time contract to any sort of part time during the first three years after children-birth, with a mandatory return to full-time at its end
• telework:
  • opportunity of including tele-work within a mixed-combination with other contractual forms during periods of work life balance needs
• permits to allow:
  • defining individual tailored flexible timetables or to become part of a flexi-time arrangement
  • switching to different contracts (on project, tele-work...) or to use days-of-permit shaped in single hours on demand of the worker who has parents with special need
  • use un-paid permits for workers with children who are ill within the first eight years of life
• return after maternity leave:
  • obligation to reinstate the woman into the same or equivalent work/role as before the maternity leave
  • receipt of updated training to enable her to return to work
• parental leave:
  • opportunity to switch the parental leave into a part time but with a proportionally longer duration if it matches with the work needs