From crops to contracts, from residence permits to wages: the new anti-caporalisation database is born

The government had announced it in the aftermath of the latest work-related tragedy in the fields of Latina: the creation of a task force capable of using the information and databases available between the different administrations to create a new information system for combating 'caporalato' (forced labour). In addition to this new structure, which will be housed in the Ministry of Labour, there is also the creation of a new database on contracts in agriculture. In this case, management will be entrusted to the Inps. This is what is envisaged by two amendments tabled by the rapporteurs in the Senate Agriculture Committee and which have only one aim: to allow the development of the strategy to combat the phenomenon of 'caporalato' and, above all, to try to encourage a qualitative evolution of agricultural work by increasing the capacity for analysis, monitoring and supervision of the phenomena of exploitation of workers in agriculture.

The amendment entrusts the Ministry of Labour with the establishment of a new Information System to combat 'caporalato'. A system to share information and data between the different state administrations and the regions. The Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Interior, Inps, Inail, the National Labour Inspectorate, Agea, and ISTAT will all contribute to the system. The starting point will be Labour's data on farm reports and data from the unitary information system of active labour policies also related to the agricultural market. The Ministry of Agriculture will provide the Information System with the registry of farms and their economic status, as well as the crop calendar. The Viminale will be able to enrich the System with data on residence permits issued for work purposes, as will the Inps, which will be able to provide information on wages, contributions and insurance as well as data on inspections. For accidents and occupational diseases in companies, the information will come from Inail, while INL will provide the results of inspections and ISTAT, for its part, will be able to release information on the status of active agricultural enterprises to the database. There will also be information contributions from the regions and autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, which will be asked for data on transport and housing for workers in the agricultural sector.

With another amendment tabled by the rapporteurs and soon to be put to the vote to the Agriculture Decree, the Agriculture Contracts Database is established at Ins. All companies intending to participate in contracts in which the commissioning enterprise is an agricultural enterprise, whether in individual or associated form, will be obliged to register in the new database. It will be the same Ins Ins that will define what the documentation will be for the verification of the qualification requirements of the contractor, the entrepreneurial structure, those relating to the organisation of the necessary means and the management of the risk of the service being contracted out.

When concluding a contract in agriculture, the enterprise will be obliged to provide the client with an insurance surety policy covering social security contributions and insurance premiums due in relation to the period of performance of the contract and the wages due to the enterprise's employees employed in the contract.