ROME – Hundreds of university lecturers around Italy are being investigated and prosecuted for evading their duties and pursuing an illegal second job.

 Compensation claims totalling a whopping 42 million euros have already been demanded from 172 professors.

 This comes after they reportedly violated their employment agreement by not guaranteeing 350 hours or work per year, instead falling into the part-time job category of 250 hours of work per year.

 Roberto Voza, Director of the Department of Law at the University of Bari, says: “The Gelmini law allows for some activities but not regular and systematic consultancies.”

 The law indeed states that university professors and researches are allowed to carry out autonomous activities unless they work fulltime. In which case, they’re forbidden to pursue external professional endeavours or take up paid positions.

 On the other hand, those who opt for part-time schemes with a lower salary are allowed to have a second job on the go.  

 More checks are being carried out on 411 teachers as part of the inquiry launched by the Guardia di Finanza. The disputed damages could therefore double after these controls are conducted.

 Mr. Voza warns, however, that the Gelmini law is ambiguous in some areas. It should therefore be made abundantly clear what is meant by a second job. 

 The teachers under investigation work at the faculties of Engineering, Architecture and Chemistry at 17 universities. Among the universities involved are the Politecnico in Milano and Turin, Tor Vergata, Roma Tre, La Sapienza, Federico II in Naples and Unipa in Palermo.

 However, cases of this kind have been going on for a while.

 Last year, for instance, Professor Marco Boldoni, an expert in stem cell research, was accused of working as a dental surgeon at the San Gerardo hospital in Monza, while also being a full-time professor at the University of Bicocca in Milan. He had to pay an overwhelming 4.5 million euros to Bicocca Universtiy for tax damages, and a further 236,406 euros to San Gerardo.

 A month ago, judges also demanded Professor Paolo Pinceti, an engineering professor at the University of Genoa, to pay a total of 2.5 million euros as compensation for accepting several positions at private companies without consulting the university.

 fct