Archive:Public employment - Italy
This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived.
- Source: Ministry of the Spanish presidency 2010, publication "Public employment in the European Union Member States" .
This article is part of a set of background articles and introduces public employment in Italy.
Regional and administrative organisation
Introduction
Italy is a parliamentary Republic with representative democracy. The legislative power is held by a bicameral Parliament. It is a multi-party system. Italy is divided into 20 administrative Regions, organized into provinces and these in turn are divided into municipalities. Of the twenty regions, five (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sardegna, Sicilia, Trentino Alto Adige/Sudtirol, Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste ) enjoy a special status due to their geographical, cultural or social characteristics.
Since the Nineties some electoral, administrative and constitutional reforms were introduced to reorganise the State. The electoral reform process began with direct elections from Mayors up to Regional Presidents and the reinforcement of their roles. The administrative reforms started with the simplification and transparency of administrative procedures, the decentralisation of functions, the technological innovation, the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of services delivered by public administrations.
The constitutional reform interested the section 5 of the Constitution.
“With the 2001 reform of the Italian Constitution, Italy has gone from a regional system in which central government enjoyed all the powers combined with a limited role for local government to a system that can best be defined as federalist like because the federalisation process has not yet been completed, especially in terms of establishing a house of parliament representing the interests of the regions, provinces and municipalities as such”
System of government
The Italian Parliament is made up of the Chamber of the Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The Parliament represents one of the few cases of full bicameralism. Both Chambers are democratically elected by the population. Legislature can only last five years.
The President of the Republic is the Head of State and represents the national unity. His main prerogatives are representative but, at times, he/she may act as an arbitrator of the country’s politics. The Constitution leaves him/her out of the partisan field although an important role is reserved for the President.
The Government: The executive power is held by the Government that, according to art. 92 of Constitution, is composed of the President of the Council of Ministers and the Ministers, who together compose the Ministers Council. The Law n. 400 of 1988 disciplines the Government activity and the regulation of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
Composition: The Council of Ministers comprises the President of the Council and the Ministers. There is a Government in the broadest sense, there are also State Secretaries, Ministers without Portfolio and Vice-Ministers. Italian Governments are usually heterogeneous due to the distribution of offices as a result of the coalitions, whereby the Prime Minister balances and promotes the association of the Council.
The Head of the Government: The Prime Minister is the Head of Government with the express function of directing the general politics of the Government and coordinating the activity of the Council of Ministers. The Ministers are personally responsible for the actions of their offices, and assume collective responsibility for the actions of the Council of Ministers.
Government Functions: The government directs the general and national politics, has legislative initiative, participates in sessions of the Chambers (although it is not a member of them) and can be heard by the Chambers. It can receive delegation from the Parliament to adopt legislative-decrees with the force of ordinary law and it can adopt also decrees in case of necessity and urgency: in this case the decree-law must be ratified by Parliament within 60 days [art. 77 Cost].
Regional organisation
The Constitution defines the Italian Republic composed of Municipalities, the Provinces, the Metropolitan Cities, the Regions and the State, placed on the same level [art. 114], overturning the previous approach when the State was above every body. The Regions are territorial entities with own statutes [art. 114 for Regions with a Common System; art. 116 for Regions with a Special Statute]. The Regions have political, financial and administrative autonomy and legislative power –concurrent or exclusive– in many issues [art. 117].
Their legislation is legally controlled via the constitutional control. The Government may submit to the Constitutional Court a regional law when it exceeds the competences of Regions, but also the Regions may submit to the Constitutional Court a State law or a regional law that it’s thought affecting the regional competences.
The President of the Republic may dissolve a Regional Council or remove the President of Region if they act against the Constitution or for serious violations of the law.
The Constitution establishes two different types of Regions:
• Regions with a Special Statute are Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sardegna, Sicilia, Trentino Alto Adige/Sudtirol, Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste [art. 116 Cost.]. They are Regions with particular importance due to a geographical (Islands and Valle d’Aosta), political and economic factors. Their autonomy is stronger.
• Regions with a Common System are the remaining 15 regions. The organizational structure of the Regions is essentially the same, the difference between them lies in their powers and in the drafting and reform of their Statutes, whereby for Special Regions the statutes are adopted by Constitutional law, and for the others by a Regional law.
Elections to Regional Councils were held for the first time in 1970, so until then, it was not possible to talk about Italian regional reality. This delay of over 20 years (the “special” Regions existed but with far less powers) was due to various factors (also the mistrust between the parties).
Summary of regional organization
• The Italian Republic is single and indivisible and the State is the source of the power of the Regions which are listed in the Constitution. The number of regions may vary. A coordinating spirit should prevail in relations between them.
• The regional bodies should be representative, financially independent and their legislative capacity is limited to their competences within their territorial sphere.
Competences
Legislative power is exercised by the State and the Regions according to the Constitution and the Community law and international obligations.
The Constitutional law n. 3/2001 has modified the division of competences between State and Regions.
“Article 117 Cost. sets out the exclusive competences of the State ( for example foreign policy, defence and armed forces, the administration of justice, immigration) and the concurrent competences of the State and Regions whereby the former lays down the basic principles in a national law and the latter specify the contents in more details through regional laws (for example, foreign trade, health care, scientific research). All of the other matters not specified in the Constitution fall within the competence of the Regions, which in effect amounts to a residual competence in their favour.”
Regional bodies
The law n.165/2004, according to art. 122 Cost., has established that Regions determine the system of electing the President of the regional Council and Regional Council within specified principles.
Regional Council (Regional Parliament); exercises the legislative powers attributed to the Region, politically controls the Board and is democratically elected.
Regional Government; is the executive body of the region, its members are choosed by President of the Region.
President of the Regional Government; elected directly by voters resident in the Region. He/she represents the region, enacts regional laws and regulations, manages administrative functions delegated by the State in the region and calls elections. The Regional President, like the rest of the regional government is politically accountable to the Regional Council.
Public administration
In recent years, the Italian Public Administration has been characterised by its systematic process of reform and modernisation. The current climate of economic crisis and accelerated community legislation leads to one of the priorities being the restriction on public spending.
Public Employment Structure
Legal Basis :
• Law 165/2001 on the General Rules Governing the Work of Public Officials, as modified by legislative decree n. 150/2009.
• Collective agreements.
• Code of Conduct for Government employees (2001).
Structure
Civil Service Model - Employee Categories
The civil service reform of February 1993 instituted contract-based relations between public employees and the State. This process was known as the “privatisation of public employment”, the aim of which was on one hand, to put an end to certain privileges enjoyed by public employees and on the other hand, to bring their regulations in line with those of the private sector.
The legislative decree n° 165/2001 establishes wich are the public administrations (article 1) and it identifies civil servants who are regulated by the decree itself and private labour laws (article 2) and public employees who have not been privatised (article 3), in order to guarantee their independence. The latter represent the 15 % of public sector employees (judges, public prosecutors, university professors, military personnel and police officers, diplomats and prefects) and they are governed by their own public regulations.
Public Employee Management Body: The Department for Public Administration is the body responsible for managing public employees and defining their selection and recruitment processes. Until October 2002, it managed Senior Civil Servants, which was an inter-ministerial matter, coordinated by a special professional body called the Ruolo unico dei dirigenti, but since 2002 each Ministry manages own SCS.
Statistics: Population (about 60 m., Istat 2008); Public employees (according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance – State General Accounting Department, 2008, about 3.4 m.); 85 % Civil servants, 15% public sector status; Public employee union membership rate: about 45 % (according to data from Dep. Pub. Adm).
Rights, obligations, principles and values
Rights and Obligations: Public sector workers have the right to freedom of speech, political freedom and to join a union. The right to strike is authorised but there are certain restrictions for military personnel and police officers, set out in specific rules. Civil servants must take an oath (contractual employees are exempt from this obligation since 2001) and they have the duty of efficiency, neutrality and professionalism as well as loyalty to the Nation. They also have the right to conscientious objection.
Equality: There are various rules that foster equal opportunities. For example, one out of every three candidates for a given post must be female. 70 % of Director-Generals in Central Public Administrations are male [internal survey of Department P.A. 2009].
Merit - System
Public employment has been interested by various reforms, mainly by law n° 133/2008 and the legislative decree n° 150/2009, that have provided measures with the purpose of optimizing labour productivity and make the organization more flexible; reorganizing the system for staff appraisal, which is linked to the implementation of evaluation systems and control, but also, more generally, providing the cycle of strategic planning; restructuring the system of collective bargaining and their financing system.
According to legislative decree. n° 150, a new evaluation system is introduced relating to the establishment of new control equipment and a central evaluation committee, which will prepare an annual ranking of performances of public administrations in three levels of merit in order to allocate resources at national collective bargaining for the best ones. The decree n.150 has introduced also the principle that the bargaining cannot derogate the law.
The reform enhances therefore the figure of the manager, who will operate really as responsible for allocating economic treatments accessories for human resources and will be sanctioned, economically, if he doesn’t carry out his work effectively.
Training: On-going training is one of the priorities of the Department for Public Administration. It is mandatory and under the responsibility of the employee’s administration.
Training of Employees and Senior Executives: There are various training centres, the most important of which is the National School of Public Administration (SSPA), responsible also for the training of senior civil servants. It organises training courses for newly appointed executives and offers on-going training courses for other public employees. The initial training phase is carried out in formative cycles of no less than 1 year, and is offered to all new senior officers and executives who have passed the competitive examination set by the Prime Minister’s Office. There is currently a pilot training course entitled “The European Senior Civil Servant”, run by the Department of Public Administration and the National School for Public Administration. Other training centres include the High Economic and Finances School, the Local Public Administration School and the Police Centre for Studies and Training.
Remuneration
Pay rises for public sector employees were automatic until the 1993 reform. Since then, remuneration is determined by the employee collective agreements.
Social dialogue and system of representation
The Agency for Collective Bargaining for Public Administration (ARAN) has been representing the public employer in collective bargaining negotiations since 1993, except for civil servants who have not been privatised. ARAN membership is mandatory for all public administrations, which are consequently kept informed of progress in negotiations on a regular basis.
The Agency has been reorganised by legislative decree n. 150/2009.
As far as the employees are concerned, there are many unions and three main confederations:
• Italian General Confederation of Labour.
• Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions.
• Italian Workers’ Union.
Around 45 % of public sector employees are members of a union. According to legislative decree n. 150/2009, art. 54, negotiations will be carried out in 4 different sectors at the national level for 2010-2013. The collective agreements provide on matters relating to pay, working conditions, professional content, and equal opportunities.
Senior civil servants
The creation of the Senior Civil Service in Italy dates back to the 1970s (“dirigenza”) and has undergone several legislative changes since then (in 1972, 1993-1998 and 2002). Their status has been governed by diverse laws and private contracts since 1998. However, it can be said that there is a formal SCS status in Italy. (Summary Table)
The Secretary-General, Director-General or Senior Executive functions could be carried out both by SCS and by politically-appointed experts. Lower level executives are excluded from political appointment.
Performance assessment for SCS takes place annually.
The remuneration system of senior civil servants is based on merit, the position and productivity, whereby aspects such as seniority or years in public service are not taken into account. Salary is based on:
• A basic salary (for example, for State ‘s executives, it’s 50% of the total).
• A bonus (idem, 40%) related to the responsibility involved in the position, according to a fixed scale which is decided annually by the corresponding Minister.
• A percentage (idem,10%) for the fulfilment of objectives.
The percentages can vary for the remuneration of Director-General.
Recent reforms and prospects
Modernizing the Public Administration is a key issue and a plan defining diverse performance objectives for the forthcoming years has recently been established. These objectives include:
• A 20% rise in productivity in the public services.
• One out of eight retiring employees will not be replaced.
• A more efficient, restructured and digitalised public administration.
• Enhance quality and citizen satisfaction.
• A 40% reduction in public expenditure over the next 5 years.
• Improvements in the management and responsibility of public servants, giving human resource managers the possibility of evaluating them, increasing wages and rewarding productivity.