The other day my inner alarm system was on red alert. TV2 Denmark,
for whom I have been working as a presenter since September, had asked
all employees to keep their telephone lines open between seven and ten
o’clock. There are serious cutbacks at the moment, and during those
three
hours those who faced redundancy were going to be told. Thank God my
telephone never rang, but the mood was and remains sombre.
TV2 Denmark has got rid of 200 of their 1100 employees through
voluntary and non-voluntary
redundancies. It’s nasty.
But it could be worse.
The management at many Italian TV stations and other Italian work
places dream of being able to do
the same. But in Italy trade unions have managed to keep antiquated
rules which make it near impossible for an employer to sack people.
An Italian editor in chief confided in me that he would have sacked
30 of his journalist on the spot, if
only he could. There are people who spend a whole week not writing
one sentence – and if they
did, the readers would suffer.
It has to be said that Italy doesn’t provide for the unemployed like
we do in Scandinavia. Statistics show my sacked TV2 colleagues enjoy
very good prospects of finding new jobs.
Getting the sack in Italy is catastrophic. There are no job centres
and a very limited period of state
support. Often there is also only one provider per family. But the
Italian labour market is a quagmire, and the greatest hindrance to
development is the fact that it is so difficult to get rid of people.
Employers don’t want to employ people on traditional contracts, when
they cannot change
their minds about someone at a later stage.
So they typically turn to short-term contracts with bad social
protection for the employees.
This hits young Italians particularly hard. They work in the black
economy, are poorly paid – or at
best they have short-term, unsecure contracts. They have – not very
surprisingly – no hope for or faith
in the future. You could call it a social catastrophe.
Several Italian governments have tried to address these issues over
the past 15 years, but so far the
labour market is anachronous, and the trade unions don’t seem
prepared to give up anything to
change this.
I lived in Italy for 15 years and looked forward to moving home to
the modern world. I have not been
disappointed. I have male colleagues on paternity leave! I never met
one of those in Italy!
In this country we’ve actually managed to get rid of men’s
exaggerated focus on the female
body, after years of focus on sexual harassment. It is very
liberating.
In Italy such harassment is still widespread, and it is accepted to
a degree that men openly stare at
smart-looking women, including those they meet at work. It is
wonderful to concentrate on being a professional rather than a woman
when you’re at work!
Although it has had the undesired side effect of totally eliminating
playfulness between the sexes in
the Nordic countries, even outside of work. Practice!
There is one thing Scandinavia could learn from Italy, however. Up
here in the north, our identities are defined to an exaggerated degree
by our jobs. In Italy your feeling of belonging comes first and
foremost from your family, your friends, your birthplace and culinary
traditions.
And thank God for that. I am not only a journalist. I am also she
who makes a heavenly lasagne!
