A favourable vote, but with a clear request not to consider the matter of family policy closed. That was the position expressed by independent councillor Michela Pelliccioni in her voting statement on the bill dedicated to support measures for families and the birth rate, discussed and approved by the Grand and General Council (Consiglio Grande e Generale).
Pelliccioni acknowledged the positive aspects of the measure, starting with the new support schemes and the extension of leave for mothers and fathers, but she asked policymakers to go further. Her remarks focused in particular on the housing problem, the balance between work and family life, flexible working hours and remote work.
She also addressed protections for pregnant workers. According to Pelliccioni, measures such as those preventing the non-renewal of fixed-term contracts must be balanced against the needs of businesses, to avoid the opposite risk: making it harder for women of childbearing age to access employment.
Her full statement follows below.
Michela Pelliccioni (independent): «I will use the five minutes available to me, as an independent councillor, to offer some final thoughts on this bill, which I clearly support. It could hardly be otherwise, since it contains provisions that favour families and childbearing. However, I want lawmakers to see this measure not as an endpoint, but as an absolute starting point with regard to everything that still needs to be done to support families effectively. I said it at the outset and I reiterate it now: a family certainly needs financial aid and support tools, but it also needs policies that make affordable housing available. It needs jobs with hours and flexibility that allow people to balance family life with work. Families have certainly changed compared to the past, but contractual and employment arrangements have not evolved in step with them. Unfortunately, we are now feeling the effects of this misalignment, which also has consequences for the low birth rate our country is recording. So the introduction of new rules and financial support is welcome, but financial aid alone is not enough. I certainly appreciate that new forms of support and new types of leave have been introduced, and that leave has been extended for both fathers and mothers. This is undoubtedly a positive aspect. On the other hand, and I want to stress this, we also need to act on employment arrangements, introducing options that this law only touches upon. It mentions, for example, work flexibility and remote working. On this front, the new bill has not been decisive in addressing the needs families have today, and this is something we must consider very carefully. We must also pay close attention to the introduction of rules that are certainly favourable to pregnant women. I am referring, for example, to the provision preventing dismissal or the non-renewal of fixed-term contracts. Here too, we need to be aware of the effects that introducing a rule of this kind can have. We must assess all existing contractual arrangements and also, and this is no minor point, the needs of businesses, because a balance must be found that safeguards everyone’s interests. It is quite true that, in certain respects, female workers represent the weak link in the chain, but it is equally true that introducing measures with no alternatives, or that seriously harm business interests, risks excluding a segment of labour demand aimed at women of a certain age. The risk, then, is that the pool of job opportunities for women of childbearing age could shrink significantly. Let us truly pay attention to this and try to address it as well, by introducing a set of legislative safeguards that can also counterbalance the interests of businesses, so that women who want to start a family and have children, but who do not yet have stable employment, are not left excluded from the labour market. In conclusion, at the end of this long debate, I confirm my favourable vote on the bill. There is still a great deal of work to be done, but we must also make the most of the unique characteristics of a small state like ours, because we can find intelligent and effective solutions capable of becoming an example for those looking at us from outside on such an important issue as family and childbearing».
