The Italian Post Office has come up with an innovative, yet centuries-old method to reduce the costs of its aging workforce. The older workers, that cost the company much more money, may be enabled to pass on their posts to their own sons and daughters.
Under drafts plans presented to unions, postal workers will be able to cede their permanent job contracts to their descendants as long as they are over 30 and with a high school diploma.
The Post Office is hoping that the chance for parents to directly pass on the coveted “contratto a tempo indeterminato” (permant contract) to their children will prove motivation enough for them to leave their post.
By doing so the employess will free the Post Office of having to pay the high costs in terms of salaries and social care that the parents accumulated over the long years of service. They can, instead, start afresh with the “young” ones.
The fact that passing on jobs like this may not be the best possible route for a company to take does not seem to bother many. Nepotism has deep roots in Italy and many consider passing a job to their son or daughter, with little question of merit coming in, as a natural thing to do.
“We thought it would good to have a change of guard and bring new people in,” De Candiziis said in a telephone interview to Bloomberg news. He is thesecretary general of the Failp- Cisal union, which first proposed the idea. “The company informed us verbally they were moving forward. It could happen by early October.”
To qualify, a retiring worker would have to be at least 58 years old and have made 35 years of pension contributions. Candidates looking to take their parents’ place at the post office would be subject to a job interview.
