Hardworking Italians

Jan 10, 2004

I've seen several reports recently of studies showing that Italians have more vacation days than anyone else in the world, except maybe the French. Most regularly-employed Italians during a year enjoy some long weekends, even longer Christmas and Easter breaks, and several weeks' vacation in the summer. However, I'd like to see a study of total HOURS worked in a year. A normal workday for many is 8 or 9 am to 8 or 9 pm, and the leisurely two-hour lunch is a thing of the past, at least in northern Italy. A senior manager in Milan to whom I was teaching English last year worked from 9 am to 8 pm, Monday through Friday, with only a half-hour break for lunch. When anti-smoking rules were enforced, it was a real problem for him to take a five-minute break every two hours to go out and have a cigarette. Plus, he worked every Saturday from 9 to 1. By the time he got away on vacation, he certainly needed and deserved it.

Strikes and More Strikes

Feb 9, 2004

Italy's 155,000 public medical employees are on strike today, led, with unusual unanimity, by all 42 of their unions. The major issue is that their contracts were due to be renewed two years ago (I suppose that implies cost-of-living increases, at least), and have not been, due to disagreements between the federal and regional governments over who should pay. The medics have also issued a multi-point protest document demanding the de-politicization of hospital appointments and more control by the medical personnel of their shifts and how their work is organized, which seem reasonable demands.

Alitalia is also on strike, protesting a restructuring plan for the struggling airline which would cut at least 1500 jobs. I don't sympathize with this one. The entire airline industry is in trouble; why should we taxpayers pay to keep an ill-managed national airline afloat when better and/or cheaper flights are widely available? I fly low-cost airlines so I can go more places, more often, but I lose that advantage if I also have to pay more taxes to benefit Alitalia employees.