‘We are not choosy,’ say a group of ‘precarious’ workers in the latest of a string of protests against the insulting remarks made last month by Italy’s labour minister Elsa Fornero about the country’s struggling unemployed youth.
In a gesture protest they ‘cleaned’ streets to show their willingness to engage in useful projects for Naples.
A procession held Wednesday ended outside the prefecture, where they were met by police in riot gear.
Fornero, architect of hire and fire labour reforms passed earlier this year, stated at a conference attended by businesses in Milan that youngsters seeking work ‘can’t afford to be too choosy.’
About a third of 15 to 24-year-olds are unemployed and around half of young people only have temporary and often underpaid jobs.
Wages in Italy are ranked 23rd among the world’s richest nations, according to rankings by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Cuts in public spending and tax rises hitting the majority of the population have sent the country into a long recession with data released Thursday showing the economy contracting for the fifth consecutive quarter.
The same policies pursued across the Eurozone have now put the Single Currency area officially back in recession too and this is expected to extend until the end of the year with 2013 promising to be little better than stagnation, a Reuters poll of more than 70 economists showed on Thursday.
Ansa photos of protest
Watching Corporate Europe
What an interesting way to protest. The situation in Italy sounds a lot like what’s going on here in Spain. Hopefully things will improve soon, but “little better than stagnation” as you wrote doesn’t bode well.
Posted by Jessica | November 15, 2012, 10:29 pm