Italian public sector pay stays frozen

Mariana Madia, the Italian minister of public administration, has announced that salaries in the public sector are to be frozen until the end of 2015.

The freeze started in 2010, and the minster has stated that “in this moment of crisis, the resources to end the freeze are not available”. Italy, now in its third recession since 2008, has committed to EU budget rules limiting the deficit to 3% of GDP and will have to cut spending by some €20 billion next year, prime minister Matteo Renzi said recently.

The FP-CGIL, the largest union in the public sector, estimates that if the freeze continues, it will mean that, on average, each employee will have lost €4,800 (about £3,800). Without a change in the government’s position, “we will be back on the streets,” it says.