ROME - In a letter to EU Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, David Petrie, the Chair of the Association of Foreign Lecturers in Italy (ALLSI), has called on the EU to act on the inefficacy of the latest pisspoor Italian government decree on the Foreign lecturers plight.

 The decree law issued May 4 by the cabinet of the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was in response to a European Commission threat, Jan. 26, to take Italy before the Court of Justice of the European Union if the money was not paid to the long-suffering lecturers from Britain and other countries.

 The sole new provision in the law decree (48/2023), of limited effect but clearly intended to convince the European Commission that Italy is committed to redressing the ongoing discrimination criticized in the reasoned opinion, is the introduction of a financial deterrent for Italian universities failing to take part in the required co-financing procedures, as and when these have been defined by the ministerial decree referred to above -- the working funds awarded annually to these Universities by the Ministry will be reduced by 1 per cent.

 If, however, a University fails to act, either through negligence or because it calculates that co-financing the differences in salary and pension contributions for its CEL/ex-Lettori will cost more than the loss of 1 per cent of its regular funding, it will not face consequences or penalties of any kind. No obligation has been placed upon the universities, least of all in respect of the financial amounts and content of any measures to be introduced on behalf of CEL/ex-Lettori in order to put an end to the ongoing discrimination against them.

 Petrie, in a letter to EU Commissioner Schmit, has pointed out these decree failures and has commented on the law, stating "The decree makes no serious attempt to remove the discrimination censured by the Court of Justice."

 "Article 38 of the decree law 48 of 4 May, relies on collective agreements; leaving each university to reach local agreements with local trade unions without giving any clear instructions on how to remove the discrimination censured by the ECJ."

 "The provisions of the decree do not in any way address the ever increasing number of lettori who have retired and are entitled to back pay and adjusted pensions as of the start of their employment and up until their last day of employment or the date of their retirement. The decree law does absolutely nothing to put right and compensate for the discrimination suffered by these lettori, on this point it is totally mute."

 In the conclusion of his letter Petrie calls for the “long months and years of waiting for justice” to end, and asks that the European commission recognises “the absolute inadequacy of this new legislation” and provides a specific ruling against the Italian States which binds them into compliance.

  jp-eb