ROME. The goal is to return to the 58-year-old requirement to access the women’s option. The problem is, as always, resources and so far, despite the constant pressure from the Ministry of Labor on the MEF, a solution has not yet been found. It was Minister Calderone herself, on the occasion of the first meeting with the social partners on 19 January dedicated to the reform of social security, who announced that she would raise the issue to the Council of Ministers. Since then, however, nothing has been heard of it.
This morning the first technical table with the trade unions dedicated to women and young people is scheduled – the two categories penalized by the labor market and therefore, in the future, also more at risk on the social security front – and barring last-minute surprises, the government will not will be able to announce whether and how to loosen the grip on the women’s option introduced with the latest budget law. It goes without saying that without an answer on this question, which is an immediate priority for the unions, the confrontation will not get off to a good start.
Compared to the previous requirement (58 years of age for employed women and 59 for self-employed and 25 years of contributions), in fact, starting this year, in order to leave work early, not only will it be necessary to have turned 60 (59 with a child and 58 with two or more children) but you will have to be part of well-defined categories of female workers: caregivers, more than 74% disabled, fired workers or employees of companies for which a crisis table is active. A solution which, however, significantly reduces the number of potential beneficiaries to just 2,900 units and for this reason is immediately contested by the unions. The hypothesis around which we are working is that of restoring the possibility of leaving work at the age of 58/59 by removing the children variable but maintaining all the other restrictions and the recalculation of allowances for contributions. But we need to find the coverage: this year alone we are talking about at least 180 million euros. Quite a problem these days.