Discrimination against non-national teachers (Lettori) in Italian universities

24.5.2023

Question for written answer  E-001630/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
Clare Daly (The Left), Mick Wallace (The Left), Luke Ming Flanagan (The Left), Billy Kelleher (Renew), Colm Markey (PPE), Ciarán Cuffe (Verts/ALE), Barry Andrews (Renew)

Infringement proceeding INFR(2021)4055 was opened against Italy for non-implementation of enforcement ruling C-119/04, the last of four rulings in a litigation extending 36 years back to the first referral of the Alluè case to the Court of Justice of the EU[1].

Over that period, Italy has denied Lettori their right to parity of treatment, a right which the Commission holds is ‘perhaps the most important right under community law’.

In its reasoned opinion of 26 January 2023, the Commission gave Italy two months to pay settlements for decades of discriminatory treatment. It is very simple to calculate the amounts due to Lettori with reference to the minimum parameter of a part-time researcher or the more favourable parameters prescribed by the CJEU in Case C-119/04. The national census lodged with the Commission, which was conducted by unions Asso.CEl.L and FLC CGIL, Italy’s largest trade union, documents beneficiaries of the sentence.

In defiance of the ultimatum in the Commission’s reasoned opinion, Italy, in a Decree Law of 4 May, has instead legislated for additional time to come up with additional legislation to supposedly meet Treaty obligations it has infringed for over three decades.

Given that the Decree Law essentially only prolongs decades of denial of justice, will the Commission immediately refer infringement case INFR(2021)4055 to the Court of Justice?

Submitted: 24.5.2023

• [1] Case C-33/88, Allué and Othersv U niversità degli studi di Venezia.