Professional reform: news for lawyers, doctors, engineers and architects

There are more than twenty guiding principles in the draft law: they range from gender equality in governance and in the electoral lists for the National Associations and Councils, with provision for online elections, to fair remuneration, from the revision of the rules for continuing education (allocating an annual quota of credits to new technologies and artificial intelligence) specialisations and the reform of the state examination. The Disciplinary Councils have also been redesigned, no longer appointed by the presidents of the courts, but by 'internal' means by the Orders.

Among the most significant novelties is precisely the extension of the equal compensation to all customer relations and not only to 'strong' ones such as banks and insurance companies. And it is no coincidence that the decree stipulates the setting of parameters also for those categories that do not yet have them, to be set (or updated) within a short timeframe after the enactment of the implementing decrees.

It then allows the categories that request it to start a pathway for the recognition of various internal specialisations and certifications of competence, a rule that looks particularly at technical categories such as engineers that already have voluntary pathways. The aim is then to extend to all the protections for the postponement of tax and contribution deadlines in the event of serious illness, accidents or maternity.

But the timeframe for enacting the new rules is tight and risks missing the target before the end of the parliamentary term: the government has 24 months to exercise the delegation of powers, which, moreover, will be triggered once the parliamentary process has been completed.

Satisfaction was expressed for the Ddl reorganising the professions by Rosario De Luca, president of Professioni italiane (the association that brings together 24 out of 28 Orders), who thanked Prime Minister Meloni and the entire government for this result in favour of "a sector," he recalled, "central and fundamental for the country that deserves to have modern rules that enhance the social value of Orders. Even Confprofessioni, the sector's federal trade union association, welcomed the signal of attention towards this sector, but its president Marco Natali asked for the Ddl "the involvement of all the players concerned, in addition to the Orders also the organisations that the law recognises as social partners and representatives of the interests of the liberal professions".