Workers In Italy Research Articles

Occurrence and characteristics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in buffalo bulk tank milk and the farm workers in Italy

The aim of the present study was to assess the occurrence of MRSA in buffalo dairy farms and in buffalo tank milk from Italy, and to provide information about the antimicrobial resistance profile and molecular characteristics of the isolates. We collected 75 bulk tank milk (BTM) samples from 75 farms and 24 nasal swabs from 24 farm operators. Three (4%) of the 75 BTM samples and 1 (4%) of the 24 human nasal swabs tested positive for MRSA. The milk isolates belonged to the genotypes ST1/t127/Va and ST72/t3092/V, while the human isolate was characterized as ST1/t127/IVa. All isolates were multidrug resistant but vancomycin susceptible; they carried the icaA gene but tested negative for the pvl and ses genes. ST72 is a CA-MRSA commonly found in South Korea, and this is the first report of its detection in Europe. Although we found a low prevalence of MRSA in the farms we surveyed, this study clearly demonstrates, for the first time in Europe, that MRSA can be found in dairy buffalo farms and in raw buffalo milk. Therefore, the risk of human colonization/infection with MRSA linked to the handling of raw milk or consumption of contaminated dairy products should not be ruled out.

The right to dismiss a worker in Italy, particularly the right to dismiss on the ground of objective reasons

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Maternal Stress and Offspring Lifelong Labor Market Outcomes

This paper examines the effects of in-utero exposure to stress on lifelong labor market outcomes. We exploit a unique natural experiment that involved randomly placed Nazi raids on municipalities in Italy during WWII. We use administrative data on the universe of private sector workers in Italy and link this data to unique historical data with detailed information about war casualties and Nazi raids across space (Municipality) and time. We find that prenatal stress exposure leads to lower wage earnings when workers start their career, and that this effect persists until retirement. The earnings penalty is in large part due to the type of job that people hold and interruptions in their working career due to unemployment. We further show that workers exposed to in-utero stress face larger earnings reductions after job loss due to mass layoffs. This earnings loss deepens their relative disadvantage over time.

Maternal Stress and Offspring Lifelong Labor Market Outcomes

This paper examines the effects of in-utero exposure to stress on lifelong labor market outcomes. We exploit a unique natural experiment that involved randomly placed Nazi raids on municipalities in Italy during WWII. We use administrative data on the universe of private sector workers in Italy and link this data to unique historical data with detailed information about war casualties and Nazi raids across space (Municipality) and time. We find that prenatal stress exposure leads to lower wage earnings when workers start their career, and that this effect persists until retirement. The earnings penalty is in large part due to the type of job that people hold and interruptions in their working career due to unemployment. We further show that workers exposed to in-utero stress face larger earnings reductions after job loss due to mass layoffs. This earnings loss deepens their relative disadvantage over time.

Le piattaforme di food delivery in Italia: un’indagine sulla nascita delle relazioni industriali nel settore

The essay proposes a specific analysis about industrial relations in Italian food delivery sector, in order to reconstruct the negotiating table between social partners and Labour Ministry and the reasons why it failed. The essay is focused on industrial relation in food delivery sector for two essential and practical reasons: compared to other on demand employment sectors, this one is the most widespread in Italy. Then, trade union representation and industrial action of on demand workers in Italy have been born in this sector, just like the English experience about IWGB disputes.

Occupational Health and Safety of Immigrant Workers in Italy and Spain: A Scoping Review.

The main aim of the present study was to summarize the available literature on the topic of occupational health and safety (OH&S) among immigrant workers (IMWs) in Italy and Spain. We conducted a scoping review, searching Medline, Social Sciences Citation Index, PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus, SciELO, and EMBASE for peer-reviewed articles, published in English, Italian, or Spanish, between 1999–2018. 34 studies were included, 28 with quantitative methodology and 6 with qualitative. Main findings were that, compared to natives, IMWs in Italy and Spain showed higher prevalence of low-skilled jobs and of perceived discrimination at work; higher physical demands, poorer environmental working conditions, and more exposure to occupational risks (e.g., ergonomic and psychosocial hazards); a greater risk of occupational injuries; worse general and mental health; and a plausible worsening of their health status, especially in Spain, as a result of the economic crisis. The findings of the present scoping review constitute warning signs that indicate the need for a holistic global response to ensure that adverse OH&S outcomes among IMWs workers are improved and that equitable access to health care is guaranteed. Such a response will require a concrete and evidence-based approach to prevent and monitor occupational risk factors and associated outcomes in the workplaces.

Trade unions and self-organised groups of educational workers in Italy

The privatisation of social services has brought about many social claims regarding the increase of labour market deregulation and employment insecurity during the previous years of economic crisis. This article focuses on the experience of self-organised groups of educational workers (educatori) in Bologna (centre-north of Italy) as a significant case of precarious workers’ mobilisation in a local context and specific sector. Several self-organised groups of precarious workers like these ones have spread throughout Europe, trying to compete with trade unions for the representation of their interests in the current crisis. The main aim of this research is to describe and explain the interaction between self-organised groups and trade unions in the outsourced social sector. According to this, new horizons for labour movements and social change can be analysed by exploring the obstacles to and the opportunities of the interaction between these two subjects.

The Age Pay Gap and Labour Market Heterogeneity: A New Empirical Approach Using Data for Italy

AbstractUsing Italian microdata over the period 2005–2016, this paper studies the difference in pay between elderly (55–64) and adult (34–54) workers in Italy along the wage distribution. The estimation strategy consists in using a three‐way fixed effects wage model and adjusting the wage gap for (observed and unobserved) labour market heterogeneity. The estimation relies on OLS as well as on unconditional quantile regressions. The analysis beyond the mean shows substantial differences in the age pay gap along the wage distribution and finds particularly pronounced gaps at the top. The fixed effects of interest (individual, job, and industry) are estimated via a partitioned procedure. Adjusting the gap for labour market heterogeneity reduces the gap almost to zero. The results suggest that individual differences between the cohorts both observed and unobserved are the main driver of the gap.

Influenza vaccination of healthcare workers in Italy: could mandatory vaccination be a solution to protect patients?

Several studies have reported that influenza infections in healthcare workers (HCWs) can lead to nosocomial outbreaks. HCWs can potentially be infected with influenza every year, and may continue to work, encouraging the spread of the virus. Different strategies, such as informative interventions on influenza and influenza vaccination, 'onsite' vaccination weeks, communicative strategies through dedicated web and social media pages, and mandatory informed dissent form, were organized for HCWs working at the University Hospital of Palermo, during previous influenza seasons. However, the increased vaccination rates observed among HCWs still remain far from the 75% recommended by Public Health Authorities. The level of coverage observed in countries with mandatory vaccination policies for HCWs, couldsuggest the adoption of this strategyforincrease influenza vaccination adherence in Italy.

Migration and the Labour Market: Ukrainian Women in the Italian Care Sector

As Europe experiences significant demographic transformation and cultural change, the rate of care migration is growing sharply. This phenomenon has been encouraged by the structural deficit of the labour market in response to the shortage of workers available for formal and informal welfare systems. This research describes the main features and implications of the Italian care worker labour force, using the story of the Ukrainian women who work there as a case study. The analyses are based on data from the Italian ‘Rilevazione continua sulle forze lavoro’ or RCFL (Labour Force Survey) covering the last 10 years (2007–2016). The RCFL data shows that the population of care workers in Italy is a quickly growing sector, responsible for 19% of employed women in care sector over that period. RCFL data also reveals that these positions have been filled almost exclusively by Ukrainian women who have immigrated. However, despite recording high employment rates for this group, they are highly segregated, both vertically and horizontally, and they experience difficulty integrating and job-education mismatching. In conclusion, this article explores relevant issues for new migration and integration policies.

Training, Recognition and Professionalisation of Youth Workers in Italy: the Contribution of Erasmus+/Youth in Action

Training, Recognition and Professionalisation of Youth Workers in Italy: the Contribution of Erasmus+/Youth in Action

Double Time-Bind in Paid Domestic Work: (Migrant) Workers and Their Employers in Italy and Poland

This paper puts forward a two-sided approach to late capitalist time regimes in paid household work by comparing the experience of time of domestic workers and domestic employers. Their time-related strategies are confronted with the aim of revealing common underlying patterns as well as possible divergences. First, migrant domestic workers’ strategies to cope with the (time) particularities of domestic work (e.g. asynchronies, free time deficit, long working hours, boredom) are analysed. Second, the experience of time of professionally active domestic employers, who in turn are pressured in their professional lives and employ domestic workers to meet these demands, is examined. The authors argue that domestic employers’ and workers’ time regimes interact and reinforce one another, creating a double time-bind. The data are drawn from Cojocaru’s research project on migrant domestic workers in Italy and Rosińska’s research on employers as well as local and migrant workers in Poland.

From Border Fetishism to Tactical Socialism

This article discusses the meeting point of two political systems with their distinctive value imprints on individuals’ everyday lives. It focuses on two stories of care, aesthetics and labor of Romanian women before the fall of the socialist regimes in Eastern Europe and in the first two decades after 1989. The first account comes from an expert, the head of the Union of National Cooperatives of Production (ucecom) during socialist Romania, the main producer of artizanat objects for export. She tells the story of the benefits of employment in state factories for women, and how socialist products were sold for Western markets in the 1970s and 1980s. The second account is of a former Romanian factory worker who after 1989 quit her job in Romania when state socialist factories were about to collapse and became a healthcare worker in Italy, for a larger salary and more stable employment. This second ethnographic example discusses migration for caregiver jobs in Italy as the transborder continuity of autonomy and employment practices that survived socialism. It is also a form of downward migration, where former state socialist professionals are paid as unskilled migrant workers. This article emphasizes the persistence of socialism in post-1989 practices and values embodied by people’s work habits not only in Eastern and Central Europe, but in unexpected places, such as southern Italy. This article applies the idea of “tactical socialism” as a strategy derived from a close analysis of work practices, with their positive accomplished effects, in contexts where jobs are distributed by the state and citizens feel protected.

Language, communication, and the politics of hope: Solidarity and work in the Italian migration infrastructure

Cet article décrit le rôle du langage dans les coopératives sociales, des organismes qui œuvrent auprès de travailleurs transnationaux en Italie pour promouvoir leur accès à l’emploi et à l’indépendance socio-économique. Cette contribution soutient que, tout comme l’État, dont la gestion des inégalités se définit par des idéologies du colonialisme et un nationalisme genré et racialisé, les coopératives italiennes gèrent la contradiction entre les promesses démocratiques libérales d’égalité et une sélection sociale par le truchement d’un processus de mystification reposant sur le langage. Ceci mène alors à la reproduction de hiérarchies qui viennent compliquer l’accès des travailleurs transnationaux à l’égalité sociale.

Migrant care workers and care-migration policies: a comparison between Italy and Japan

Japan and Italy are the most aging societies in the developed countries and they both face the rapid increase of the social cost and the demand in manpower for long-term care. Both countries have the common welfare state trajectories and characteristics. In contrast, both the care and migration policies and the role of migrant care workers between Italy and Japan are consistently different. The paper compares the welfare state characteristics, care configurations, and the care-migration policies in 2000s, and reveals how the role of migrant care workers in Italy and Japan would be influenced by the migrant and care policies reciprocally. The paper concludes that the combination of the restricted migrant policies for unskilled migrant care workers and the in-kind-based national care policies is significant in efforts to maintain a qualified and regulated care work. Conversely, it verifies that the in-cash-based national care policy with the weak migration control for unskilled migrant workers brings the spread of marketized care with weak control and low professional skills, mostly in the gray market.

Farms Employing Foreign Workers in Italy: An Analysis with Census Micro Data

Farms Employing Foreign Workers in Italy: An Analysis with Census Micro Data

Prevalence of Livestock-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (LA-MRSA) Among Farm and Slaughterhouse Workers in Italy.

We measured the prevalence of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) in swine livestock workers, examined LA-MRSA resistance profile, and associated carriage with the working activities. Information was collected on demographics and occupational history. Swabs were collected and tested for the isolation of S. aureus, examined for antimicrobial susceptibility, and all MRSA underwent ST398qPCR assay. LA-MRSA was isolated in 7.3% of the 396 enrolled workers. LA-MRSA colonization was more likely in farmers than in slaughterhouse workers (Fisher exact P = 0.001). Carriage was associated with herd size, being less frequent in small/medium farms (odds ratio = 0.20; 95% confidence interval = 0.07 to 0.53), and with the number of working days per week (OR = 2.11; 95% confidence interval = 1.07 to 4.19). LA-MRSA carriage is strongly animal-exposure related, and educational intervention informing about the risks related to the activity with livestock is needed.

Stress in Factory Workers in Italy

The ethnicity and work-related stress model (EWS; Capasso, Zurlo, & Smith, 2018, British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 15, 1–20) integrated EWS dimensions in a multidimensional perspective combining demographic (sex, education) and individual characteristics (coping styles, Type A and Type D), cultural dimensions (acculturation strategies, perceived racial discrimination), work characteristics (work demands, work resources, rewards) and appraisals (job stress/satisfaction), in the prediction of psychophysical health conditions in migrant workers. The current research aimed to test the application of the EWS in a sample of Moroccan factory workers and hypothesised significant and specific profiles of associations between individual, ethnic and work characteristics, with psychophysical health outcomes. A questionnaire consisting of five sections measuring sociodemographics and individual differences (coping styles/personality), cultural dimensions (acculturation strategies), work characteristics, appraisals (job satisfaction/stress) and subjectives reports of health was administered to 250 Moroccan factory workers in Italy. Data were analysed using logistic regression to evaluate the independent and combined effects of all dimensions reported on the risk of suffering health problems. Data revealed specific and significant associations of individual characteristics, cultural dimensions and job characteristics with health outcomes. Findings will be useful in defining psychological interventions to promote well-being in specific workplaces supporting the dimensions suggested by the model applied.

Satisfied after all? Working trajectories and job satisfaction of foreign-born female domestic and care workers in Italy

ABSTRACTForeign-born women frequently find their first job in the domestic sector. This is usually considered a stepping-stone, but it is rather a definitive condition. We analyse the working trajectory of foreign-born women with a first job in domestic work using sequence analysis and studying their association with job satisfaction by means of logistic regression models. The data were collected as part of the Foreigners’ Job Trajectories project conducted by the ISMU Foundation in Italy in 2009. We found that, after all, domestic and care workers can be satisfied with their job if basic decent working conditions are guaranteed. Particular attention is paid to the high rate of job satisfaction for women with a trajectory from live-out to live-in jobs. Possible explications for job satisfaction are extensively discussed focusing on economic drivers, the agency of domestic workers, and the emotive dimension of domestic and care works.

How neo-Marxism creates bias in gender and migration research: evidence from the Philippines

ABSTRACTThe paper analyses migration flows from the Philippines in two gendered occupations: domestic helpers and computer programmers. The international division of labour theory claims that foreign investment determines migration from developing countries, especially of women, towards low-skilled gendered occupations in developed countries. This paper shows that the division of labour is neither gendered nor international in the predicted sense. For instance, data from Philippines Overseas Employment Agency shows that the theory is Eurocentric as Northern America and Europe are destinations for only 3 per cent of domestic workers’ flows. The paper argues that neo-Marxism creates bias in gender and migration research and hinders understanding of important gendered effects concerning migrants. Two examples of such gendered effects are highlighted here: the higher vulnerability to legislative change of migrant men employed as domestic workers in Italy and the higher penetration of women into computer programming in the migrant flows to the U.S.