Last Minute Portal

Italy historically has had a high degree of "patronage" jobs, used by all parties to reward followers. In July a decree substantially increased state institutions' power to transfer, discipline and dismiss employees, as well as drastically increasing medical checks and pay cuts on employees absent for illness. The Reforms put into place, draconian by Italian standards, weed out the fannulloni , roughly translatable as "idlers", from among Italy's 3.65m state employees.