Marco Campanini is already fighting his own personal battle to continue his disability struggle, but he has decided to take on another very important mission for the good of society. Ferrari has decided to protest in front of its headquarters because the world’s most famous luxury sports car company is seeking partial exemption every year (with all rights) from the Emilia Romagna region’s obligation to hire people with disabilities. What does it mean? Who can be exempted from the mandatory assumption of disability quota set by law by paying some kind of fine (not very high) to fix the problem. Many other companies are using this tactic in a business world where inclusiveness is increasingly being talked about: a real paradox. But let’s go in order.
Ferrari paid 1 million euros
Marco Campanini has a post on Instagram that has been circulating and has generated quite a few comments. In the photo, a child in a wheelchair with a degree in law and criminology and an expert in disability legislation is seen holding a brochure that reads: “Ferrari paid 1,019,239.60 euros in 2021 for not meeting the full mandatory quota. disabled: 127 disabled people. not working”. He then points out the seriousness of his statements by stating that the number of disabled people who are not employed is approximate and has been removed from the formulation of Law No. 68/99. “Is this our example in Italy?” he asks.
About what? The Law on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities, which obliges public and private companies to employ people with disabilities to ensure their right to work. There are quotas:
- seven percent of employed workers for companies with more than 50 employees;
- two workers for companies with 36 to 50 employees;
- A worker for companies with between 15 and 35 employees.
In particular, employers in the construction sector, construction site personnel and transport workers in the sector, employers operating in the air, sea and land public transport sector are not obliged to comply with this obligation in terms of travel and ship personnel. , due to obvious difficulties in running the activity (total exemption).
What is tax exemption for companies?
Those who do not comply with the rules for the right of disabled people to work are subject to sanctions. Failure to submit the prospectus containing the total number of employees electronically will result in a fine of €702.43, increased by €34.02 for each day of delay. The employer who does not comply with the compulsory quota for reasons attributed to him sixty days after the birth of the obligation to employ a disabled person has to pay an administrative fine of 196.05 Euros per worker for each worker. discovery day. And then there is the beauty: The exemption contribution, the amount that some employers can pay to obtain fewer disability employment authorizations than the quota (partial exemption) they would be required to pay. The million euros Ferrari pays every year for not hiring disabled people.
There are companies that, due to their activities, cannot fully fulfill their obligation to recruit persons with disabilities and therefore can be partially exempted, but only if an exemption contribution for each unemployed unit is paid to the regional fund for the employment of persons with disabilities. According to the law, companies engaged in production activities with the following characteristics can apply:
- strenuous work performance;
- hazard specific to the type of activity;
- a particular way of conducting business activity
Everything is happening in accordance with the law, but that’s not the point, we are faced with a real paradox. The law may be a trick for some not to hire people with disabilities.
Not just Ferrari
The exemption contribution certainly makes sense given that the type of work offered by a company may not always be suitable for people with disabilities, but it sometimes ‘helps’ companies fail to strive for the inclusivity required by civilization. The real problem lies in the amount of contributions that are too low to encourage companies to hire people with disabilities. It has already been increased in 2022, but still very low: 39.21 euros per day, one-fifth of the real fine, a total of 14,600 euros per year, which according to some should at least equal the annual gross salary (Ral ). And many companies prefer to pay these numbers in order not to employ disabled people.
In the province of Modena, there is not only Ferrari, but also Bosch, which paid 268 thousand euros. There is Philip Morris production technology, which pays 377 thousand Euros in the Bologna region, and the Marcegaglia carbon steel group, which pays 240 thousand Euros in the Ravenna region. There are 32 other big names in the province of Ferrara, including Basell, which pays more than 167,000 euros in contributions, Ostellato Lte, which pays around 100,000 euros, and Sirio, which pays around 78,000 euros. In Parma, we find Chiesi medicines with 538,000 euros, Amazon Italy over 400 thousand euros and Barilla with about 295 thousand euros. If we take the whole of Emilia Romagna, we get to more than 650 companies (2020 data, New Ferrari), an amount that is roughly the same each year, for a total of 22.5 million euros in exemption contributions paid. It’s just a slice of Italy, then there are all the other regions to consider, by staggering numbers.
Very low fines do not support inclusion
Whoever pays the most is exempted from commitment, but is it ethically correct to quit the job of disabled employees altogether? “We need more control, a change in the law and a cultural revolution,” says Paolo Vezzani. New FerrariMember of the national assembly for the Human Revolution movement, which has fought with Marco for the right to work for people with disabilities for years. “The society says I’m missing a leg, but it makes me more disabled. Whereas if a disabled person lives better, everyone lives better, but while we are now thinking of going to Mars and returning to the Moon, I still can’t take the bus to come to Ferrara”.
There is a real need for a mindset change in the business world because there are still those who think that a disabled person cannot work as well as a solid worker. Marco Campanini’s post is confirmed by tones such as “But what is this, a private company needs to have 127 disabled employees? So who will be held accountable for your inefficiency? Let’s stop this hypocrisy, it is the State that should support you”. Not private individuals”. It’s too bad that disability and inability to work are very different things, but not everyone knows it. Marco, who has been looking for work for decades in hopes of a phone call from the targeted placement, realizes that companies have every right to pay the exemption, but is struggling to ask for this mechanism to be changed. Given that it has not yielded any significant results so far, so inclusivity yes, but facts are needed, not just words.
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Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
