Italian civil servants get pay increase at last

Around 210,000 employees in Italian ministries are finally to get a pay increase for the two years 2002 and 2003, more than a year after it was agreed in principle. The delay has already led to strikes (see Labour Research March 2003, page 22).

The agreement signed at the end of last month provides for an increase of €106 a month on average, equivalent to a 6.0% increase over two years.

The deal is in line with a framework agreement for a 5.66% increase for the whole of the public sector, which the government reached with the unions in February 2002, but which so far has not been implemented in many areas. Guglielmo Epifani of the biggest union confederation, CGIL, said that the deal is an "outrider for the other public sector agreements which need to be renewed such as that for health or local government".