Italy's privacy chief on Tuesday
warned the government about the risks of profiling inherent in
remote-monitoring measures attached to its landmark Jobs Act
labour-market reform - just as the House Speaker, the country's
third-highest official, called for a much-needed clarification
of those alleged 'snooping' moves.
The government's controversial Jobs Act must not allow
"unjustified and invasive forms of control" of workers, said the
head of Italy's privacy watchdog, Antonello Soro.
"The closer monitoring of systems and resources must not
translate into undue profiling of the workforce," Soro said in
his annual report to parliament.
"It is increasingly necessary to reconcile companies'
demands for efficiency with the protection of rights," he
stressed.
In today's wired world, however, he added, some sort of
surveillance was inevitable.
"The entire globe is connected up so we're all
vulnerable," he said.
Controversy was triggered last week by changes to labour
laws for remote employees - those who work outside of a
conventional office - connected with the government's Jobs Act .
Under this, there is no requirement for union agreement or
ministerial approvals, if controls over those workers increase
through their use of their employers' computers and telephones
from remote work sites.
Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini said she hoped
parliamentary debate of the measure would bring "clarity
to the doubts that have emerged in recent days".
Pending a clear view of the alleged spying moves, there was
better news for workers on the Jobs Act front Tuesday.
The labour ministry, in fact, confirmed that new work-life
balance measures in the Jobs Act, including an extension of the
ages of children for which employees can request parental leave,
will become structural once the decree on social welfare is
definitively approved.
An enabling decree to the Jobs Act, proposed by Labour
Minister Giuliano Poletti and approved earlier this month, would
extend the ages of children for which employees can request
parental leave.
The measure would extend the time employees can choose to
take optional six-month parental leave, increasing it
for children aged up to six years (from the current three years)
for those willing to take the leave at 30% of their salaries,
and from eight to 12 years of age for parents wanting to take
unpaid leave.
The measure would go into effect on an experimental basis
later this year.
If financial coverage for this measure is lacking in 2016,
the system will revert back to the previous norm.
As well, the draft decree contains a further measure giving
parents the option of transforming parental leave into part-time
employment at 50% of pay.
The decree would also extend unemployment benefits to
companies with five or more employees, but would reduce the
amount of time laid-off workers can collect the benefits, to 24
months (30 months for the construction sector) from the current
48 months.
However that figure can rise to 36 months if employees who
are not laid off agree to so-called solidarity contracts, in
which they take pay cuts so their laid-off colleagues can keep
collecting unemployment.
Also on Tuesday, it emerged that Italy saw 577 violations
of privacy that were criminally relevant last year, and almost
630 countermeasures were taken.
In all, sanctions of some five million euros were meted
out.
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