Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

IN D U STR Y
the view, at least until very recently, that the woman’s place is in the home and
that those jobs available should go to the menfolk. It should be borne in mind,
however, that in agriculture the family farm could not function without the
contribution - usually unpaid - o f the womenfolk. Since about 1953 a radical
change has been taking place in the labour situation; the drift from the land
generally and the exodus from the South have been accompanied, forttmately, by
a rising demand for labour in the manufacturing and service industries (even in
the South) and by widening opportunities for emigration beyond the Alps. There
can be httle doubt that the availabihty o f labour and a reduction in the deadweight
o f unemployment and under-employment helped to stimulate the remarkable
expansion of industry in the fifties. The block of two million unemployed,
which had come to be regarded as normal, began to melt and by 1963, despite a
greater mobility o f labour than the country had ever known, there were serious
shortages in some categories, especially among skilled artisans. The vulnerabihty
of this new-found prosperity was quickly revealed however in the 1963 recession
when a tightening o f credit soon affected many enterprises, particularly in the
construction industry where many fugitives from the land had found employment.
I f would be remarkable if an expansion o f the scale achieved in the decade
1953-1963 were to be repeated, and in view o f the steady natural increase and the
likelihood o f more women entering paid employment in the future, it seems improbable
that industry will be short o f labour numerically. As in all industrialized
countries the problem is more hkely to be one o f quality. In this respect the
opportunities and prevailing attitudes in education at all levels are receiving
critical attention. Many o f the larger firms (Fiat, Innocenti) run excellent
apprenticeship schemes but the smaller concerns contribute httle. The problem
is not unknown in Britain.
It will be appreciated that any comparison between labour costs in Italy and
those in other countries poses problems o f great complexity but one or two broad
generahzations may perhaps be attempted. Italy is much more o f a welfare state
than is generally appreciated and whereas in Britain the employer and the
employee share the cost o f welfare contributions more or less equally, in Italy
90% o f the burden falls on the employer. The existence o f several disparate
groups in the labour force has already been noted; in that group employed
mainly in large efficient concerns where wages are fixed in co-operation with the
unions, the hourly rates, job for job, are somewhat lower than in most o f western
Europe, but when hohdays, welfare contributions borne by the employer, and
fringe benefits are added, the discrepancy in labour costs is greatly narrowed. ^
The stronger bargaining position o f organized labour^ dining the boom decade
I
m
* Figures published by the European Community Statistical Office showed that in 1962
Italian manufacturers in most sectors enjoyed little or no advantage in labour costs over
their Belgian and Dutch competitors.
* In 1963, 3-6 million workers belonged to the communist-dominated C G IL ; 2-4 to the
Catholic C IS L ; and 2-5 were shared between two organizations with less rigid political
or confessional ties.
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