David Petrie, president of the association of foreign lecturers in Italy (Associazione Lettori di Lingua Straniera in Italia – ALLSI) has welcomed the European Commission’s referral of Italy to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for its continued discrimination against foreign lecturers working in Italian universities.
However, he said the case will have no immediate impact on the campaign by foreign lecturers in Italy for equal rights and equal pay.
This long running dispute focuses on non-national, foreign language and literature lecturers in Italy, who have for decades received lower pay and poorer conditions of service than their Italian colleagues.
The dispute affects up to 1,500 foreign lecturers, both those currently working and those now retired, and has been litigated in Italian and European Union (EU) courts since 1989 without resolution.
Previous court adjudications
Referring to the latest 14 July referral, Petrie said: “It will be anything from six months to three years before a judgment is handed down [by the ECJ]; it will be the seventh foreign lecturers’ case that the ECJ has been asked to adjudicate.”
The EU Commission took the decision to refer Italy to the ECJ following that country’s failure to deliver any protections after the commission launched an infringement procedure in September 2021, claiming Italy was breaching workplace rights guaranteed by EU treaties. A formal threat of legal action was made this January (2023) – called a “reasoned opinion”.
This legal action flows from an earlier ECJ ruling made in 2006 on case C-119/04, where ECJ judges ruled that a 2004 Italian law provided adequate protection for foreign language lecturers (so-called lettori in Italian; today called “linguistic experts and collaborators” or CELS) in Italian universities.
However, to date the majority of Italy’s universities have not enforced this ruling. “As a consequence, most foreign lecturers [working in Italy] have still not received the money and benefits to which they are entitled,” the EC said in its 14 July statement.
Breach of EU rules
The commission argues that in this way Italy is breaching EU rules, namely Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 on the freedom of movement for workers, in which Article 7(1) prohibits member states from treating EU workers differently from national workers based on their nationality in respect of any conditions of employment and work, in particular as regards remuneration.
Brussels also alleges that Italy is breaking Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which prohibits discrimination of EU citizens over their nationality in another EU member state regarding access to employment and conditions of work.
Instead, it has continued to discriminate against this group of foreign workers, said a commission communiqué. These problems affected their salary, seniority and corresponding social security benefits.
Non-national foreign language and literature lecturers in Italy have been receiving lower salaries and benefits compared with their counterparts for decades.
The ECJ first ruled in 1989 that this was discriminatory in the C-33/88 case “Allué and Others v Università degli studi di Venezia”, stating that Italy was infringing EU laws by prohibiting discrimination based on nationality regarding non-Italian workers employed in its higher education institutions.
Even if the government reforms the system “this would take at least another year or two”, according to Petrie. If Italy took no action, the commission could ask the ECJ to impose recurring fines – payable until it complied (these are usually daily and can vary in amount) – another legal process that could take a year or more.
“If the fines meted out amounted to more than the sum of money due to the foreign lecturers, Italy would be likely to pay the lecturers,” said Petrie. Overall, even if this legal pressure succeeds, these lecturers may have to wait another decade or more before compensation for arrears in wages and pension contributions, he said.
Resistance from universities
Last year (2022), the dispute appeared to be close to resolution when Italys then higher education minister Maria Cristina Messa, a political independent, recommended that EUR43 million be put aside to settle the lettori’s claims. However, many universities have reportedly resisted handing over any compensation.
More recently, the current right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (of which Messa is not a member) has sought to address the issue in the “Employment Decree 2023” (Law Decree 48/2023) in force since 5 May 2023.
This leaves each university to reach its own collective agreement with local trade unions representing lettori, yet without giving any clear instructions on how to remove the discrimination censured by the ECJ.
It also does not address the increasing number of lettori who have retired and are entitled to back pay and adjusted pensions, said Petrie, in a letter to EU jobs and social rights’ commissioner Nicolas Schmit.
A ‘uniquely Italian problem’
Founded in 1997, ALLSI is an independent trade union and pressure group representing non-Italian lecturers teaching literature and language in the faculties at Italian universities. It was established when the Italian trade unions failed to solve this uniquely Italian problem, Petrie said. “We have more lettori members by far than any other union,” he said, handling around 200 claims – although many more lettori could be affected by a resolution to the problem.
Litigation has been protracted for over 30 years due to two main reasons, said Petrie: nepotism and a reluctance to compensate. He argued that Italy’s universities were rife with nepotism, delivering privileges to academics favoured by senior administrators.
“Meritocracy is anathema to a system that is, in essence, feudal,” he said. “Governments have dragged their feet over the high costs of finally compensating the lettori.”
On 30 June 2023 many of Italy’s lettori joined a national strike organised by two Italian trade unions representing workers in education, FLC-CGIL (Federazione Lavoratori della Conoscenza) and UIL RUA.
This was staged over the continued reluctance of Italy’s Ministry of Education, Universities and Research to sign a collective work contract with Italy’s lettori, which is required by Italian law, and which would ensure permanent contracts and fair pay and benefits.
Petrie said he is not aware of any other EU member state systematically discriminating against foreign workers in this way. “However, I doubt that the practices I refer to above are unique to Italy. Whereas member states welcome foreign capital, workers are less welcome,” he said.
The European University Association (EUA) was unavailable to comment on the issue nd the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, the Conference of Italian University Rectors and the FLC-CGIL trade union did not reply to University World News requests for comment.
