The Renzi cabinet approved a packet of measures to protect freelancers and self-employed workers. According to the government this so-called Jobs Act for the self-employed is designed to ‘build a modern rights and welfare system capable of supporting freelancers' current work and of safeguarding their future’. The bill will also introduce new norms on so-called smart work, i.e. ‘the flexible articulation of employee work in relation to the time and place in which it is carried out’. In a bid to prevent employers from abusing freelancers, the measure says written contracts can't be modified unilaterally or broken ‘without proper advance notice’. As well, pregnancy, illness or accidents can't be used as reasons to terminate freelance contracts - instead, they must suspend without pay for a period not longer than 150 days.
English: http://www.ansa.it/english/news/business/2016/01/29/factbox-the-jobs-act …
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.