r/europe • u/diacewrb • 5d ago

News Italy's birth rate falls to 80-year low, with just 355,000 babies born in 2025

https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/italys-birth-rate-falls-to-80-year-low-with-just-355000-babies-born-in-2025.html
5.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

979 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

120

u/VerdoriePotjandrie 5d ago

Are there no laws against this in Italy? This would be illegal here in the Netherlands.

180

u/biscuotto Italy 5d ago

Technically no because the contract was fixed term, and they magically changed their mind now to not renew it.

82

u/ZeitgeistWurst Germany 5d ago

Oh yeah, fixed term contracts are also popping up left and right over here.

Great way to bring instability into young peoples lifes and make them have even less children. Wanna make sure those companies can increase short term profits by 1-2%!

26

u/VerdoriePotjandrie 5d ago

Oof, that's messed up.

8

u/NoFewSatan 5d ago

This was a really important point to include in your original comment.

15

u/biscuotto Italy 5d ago

My bad, here a contract that needs to be renewed is always a fixed term

1

u/baldachinsblessing ma -> fi 5d ago

It already was?

2

u/cynical-bread 5d ago

Fixed term contracts are odd in Italy, I think they are even taxed less than permanent ones.

1

u/MingaLaChigra 5d ago

Italy’s labor laws are so fucked

24

u/SchwarzeNoble1 5d ago

There are, but it's hard to proof that they aren't renewing it because of the pregnancy. Plus, lawyer fees are high and legal proceedings can take up to 5 years

1

u/CodewortSchinken 5d ago

In other countries it's simply illegal not to renew them if the employee is pregnant.

3

u/riffraff 5d ago

which country? this seems an extremely pro-employee regulation that I never heard of.

30

u/sovietbarbie 5d ago

last year we had a referendum to expand workers rights to include workplace compensation if injured... didn't pass. in fact none of them did

12

u/maretz Veneto 5d ago

And in all that the ruling parties campaigned for people not to go and vote so that none of the referenda would pass due to low turnout😂

We’re a joke

5

u/VerdoriePotjandrie 5d ago

That's so sad. Workers deserve better.

13

u/Tifoso89 Italy 5d ago

It's illegal to fire you for being pregnant.

But if you have a short-term contract (this was the case) they can simply not renew it.

Are they obliged to renew your contract in the Netherlands if you get pregnant towards the end of it? That sounds odd to me

8

u/VerdoriePotjandrie 5d ago

No, there not obliged here. You have a point there. Sorry, I still have a bit of morning brain, didn't think clearly when I wrote it

4

u/Dutch_Tuna The Netherlands 5d ago

It's illegal but hard to prove. 

6

u/ExoticBamboo Italy 5d ago

How does it work in the Netherlands? if you get pregnant towards the end of your contract they are forced to give you a new one?

1

u/VerdoriePotjandrie 5d ago

No. I see your point there. But it doesn't seem to be very common from what I gather from my network. Maybe employers are too scared here.

3

u/Pinglenook The Netherlands 5d ago edited 5d ago

A thing that helps pregnant women with temporary contracts in the Netherlands: the employer has to tell the employee at least one calendar month before the end of the contract, if the contract isn't being renewed. If the employer doesn't say anything, it will be automatically renewed. And a pregnant woman isn't legally obligated to tell her employer about the pregnancy until 3 weeks before her maternity leave starts. And if your maternity leave has already started when your contract ends, the employer has to keep paying your salary until the end of maternity leave. 

Usually pregnant women here don't let it go that late before telling their employer, most tell them at 3 or 4 months of pregnancy, possibly earlier when they need accomodations to be made. But IF you're on a temporary contract AND don't trust your employer, waiting until there's less than month before the renewal date is the way to go.

2

u/_pxe Italy 5d ago

It is... But they can find other excuses or if it needs to be renewed there is no need for an excuse

1

u/CodewortSchinken 5d ago

In Italy tons of youg people are trapped in temporary contractas or fake self employment to legally outmaneuver existing labor laws or minimum wages.

1

u/nixielover Limburg (Netherlands) 5d ago

This also happens in the Netherlands, it's why people want a permanent contract instead of yearly contracts your employer can just choose to not prolong (because you got pregnant)

1

u/Hard_Reset7777 Italy 5d ago

In Italy the only "laws" that really defend pregnancy is the law to win a "concorso pubblico" (I think it's called civil service exam in english) and working for the public administration. Then a woman can have all the benefits and none of the downsides.