Corporalism, employers fined up to 5,500 euro per foreign worker forced to live in shanty towns

A regulation amending the Consolidated Text on Immigration, in the part concerning seasonal work, which, after a series of objections raised by the European Commission, introduces a crackdown on the phenomenon of 'caporalato'. According to the decree law approved by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday 4 September ("schema di decreto legge recante disposizioni urgenti per l'attuazione di obblighi derivanti da atti dell'Unione europea e da procedure di infrazione e pre infrazione pendente nei confronti dello Stato italiano"), the employer who provides the foreign worker with accommodation that is unsuitable for housing or at an excessive rent, compared to the quality of the accommodation and the salary, or even withholds the amount of the rent directly from the worker's salary, is punished with an administrative and pecuniary sanction ranging from 350 to 5.500 euros for each foreign worker. The provision clarifies that the fee is always excessive when it is more than one third of the salary.

In terms of labour solutions, the ministry is studying new, more incisive tools to fight against 'caporalato', including the extension of the inclusion allowance to the victims of this scourge. This was announced by the Minister of Labour, Marina Calderone, on the sidelines of a new meeting of the round table on 'caporalato', which took place on 6 August and was also attended - together with trade associations and unions in the agricultural sector - by the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida.

A structured campaign to combat 'caporalato' conducted by the Carabinieri throughout the country from 1 to 10 August revealed that, out of almost one thousand companies checked, more than half were irregular. In particular, 958 companies were inspected, of which 507 were found to be irregular (52.92%). During the inspections, 4960 work positions were checked, of which 1268 were found to be irregular (of these, 346 were 'undeclared' workers); of the workers checked, 2314 were non-EU workers, of whom 213 were found to be 'undeclared', and 29 were minors, of whom 9 were 'undeclared'. A total of 145 business suspension orders were issued (15.13% of the 958 companies inspected), of which 75 for 'illegal work', 41 for serious violations of health and safety in the workplace and, in 29 cases, for both; in addition, 144 warning orders were issued and 848 administrative prescriptions were issued.