EU Court, Ata recruitment system violates the law. MIM: Initiatives against precariousness launched

The Italia system for the recruitment of administrative, technical and auxiliary staff in public education institutions (Ata) violates EU law. The reason is this: because it did not provide for measures to prevent the abusive use of successive fixed-term contracts in relation to substitute Ata staff employed in State educational institutions. For that reason, therefore, 'the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under clause 5 of the framework agreement' (on fixed-term work).

This is what the EU Court of Justice ruled in upholding the Commission's appeal. For the European executive, such a system 'is incompatible with EU legislation on fixed-term contracts, which provides for restrictions on their use and favours open-ended recruitment procedures'. For this reason, the Commission brought an action for failure to fulfil obligations against Italia before the Court of Justice. The Court upheld the action.

Closely behind came MIM's reply. "The rules censured by the Court of Justice date back a long way in time, as they are contained in the Consolidated Text of Education referred to in Legislative Decree No. 297 of 1994, and subsequently amended by Law No. 124 of 1999 and its implementing regulation adopted by Ministerial Decree No. 430 of 2000, which defined the structure still in force on the subject of rankings and the conferment of substitutions of Ata personnel," it is written in a statement.

Access to the roles of Ata staff is currently through selective procedures reserved for individuals with at least 24 months of fixed-term service. This mechanism, together with the turn-over constraints introduced, well before this legislature, within the general discipline of recruitment in the civil service, has led over time to an increasing recourse to fixed-term contracts, prior to permanent tenure.

Precisely in order to resolve this long-standing and complex issue, MIM has initiated a discussion with the trade unions, setting up a technical round table for the overall revision of the recruitment system for Ata personnel Not only. In view of a forthcoming so-called 'save-infractions' emergency measure, currently being studied by the Government, the Ministry has presented a new regulatory proposal aimed at structurally overcoming the objections raised by the European Commission.